466 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



parent adhesive paper, or stamp selvage. Some botanists 

 paste the whole plant down, but this prevents them from 

 being examined both sides, and, moreover, tends to encour- 

 age mites, whilst the plants are more liable to be injured by 

 handling. 



The sheets should bear a label giving such details as 

 the scientific names, local folk-names, locality, habitat, 

 soil, altitude, collector's name, date, number of vice 

 county, and number, on the label or sheet, in the plant list 

 followed, e.g. London Catalogue, Druce's List, British 

 Museum List of Seed Plants. 



The species are placed together in a strong cover with 

 the name of the genus written on the top or bottom left- 

 hand corner. The genera may be, if not too large, placed 

 in a cover to include all the genera in an order. But 

 genera covers are usually enough. 



The plants so mounted may be stored in cabinets with 

 partitions, vertically or horizontally. Care should be taken 

 to prevent the attacks of insects, by the use of naphthaline, 

 either in the form of pads, or in balls, or otherwise. Other 

 methods of preservation are by drying plants without 

 pressure, in sand or sawdust, plaster-of-Paris, by models in 

 wax, by treating them with acetate of copper, or by preser- 

 vation in formalin, alcohol, or other media. These last 

 are, however, except for microscopic work, or morphological 

 work, more especially adapted for museum purposes, and 

 need not be detailed here. 



(c) Systematic Survey Work, or Elementary Ecology. 



The study of plants in their natural habitat, or ecology, 

 is a comparatively new study in this country, but its progress 

 has been greatly accelerated during the last ten years, as a 

 result of the recognition of its greater relative value as 

 compared with previous methods of field botany. 



