227 



from 



conditions by admitting even distant regions within the normal 

 working sphere of the professional naturalist and linking them 

 up with the old centres of research. This is the meaning of 

 the establishment of botanical laboratories in the tropics, of 

 enrolling the train. I specialist for field work abroad, and also of 

 initiating the home worker into the conditions of foreign 

 vegetations by travel, the best of all object-lessons. When this 

 has been generally accepted and has become an essential part of 

 the organisation of our research work, a new era will also have set 

 in for the botanical exploration of those immense districts which 

 so far have only been skimmed. At present, however, we stand 

 barely on the threshold of that era, and we must be thankful for 

 any outside help we can get, however casual it may be. The shelves 

 °u°™i n; l t , ional herbaria and the pages of our colonial floras testify 



the advantages which have accrued to our science 

 3. So far they have been somewhat one-siiled and 

 too much in the direction of mere specimen collecting; but there 

 is no reason why, with some guidance, our non-professional 

 contributors should not avail themselves to the full extent of 

 their opportunities and supply us with information which would 

 often increase the value of their specimens, and, one might 

 almost say, put life into them. The hints given here are conceived 

 in the spirit of those principles and adapted to the limits within 

 which the untrained collector may expect to do useful work, and 



apply at the same time more especially to the collecting of 



grasses. 



1. Only complete specimens allowing reliable identification 

 should be collected. This excludes specimens without flowers or 

 fruits. The determination of such is very often quite impossible, 

 or, when feasible, it takes more time than can conscientiously be 

 devoted to it. An exception should only be made in rare cases, as 

 when the grass is a very prominent feature of the vegetation or of 

 economic importance, and cannot be had in the flowering (or 

 fruiting) state, as is, for instance, frequently the case with 

 bamboos. Inflorescences without leaves or, in the case of tufted 

 perennials, flowering culms without basal leaves or barren leaf- 

 shoots are less objectionable, but are still incomplete and the 

 former may even be unidentifiable. 



2. In the case of small grasses up to 40 cm. (16 in.) high, the 

 whole grass should as far as possible be preserved with enough of 

 the underground portion to show its nature. Grasses higher than 



40 cm. (16 in.) 



) long. Still taller grasses 



gathered 



show their conditions at different levels, and of these, too, sections 

 of the underground stems with barren shoots attached to them 

 should be gathered. The latter in the young state with their 

 sheaths are particularly important in the case of bamboos. 



3. The specimens should, whenever possible, be laid in before 

 the leaves begin to fade or dry up and the inflorescences, as is 

 often the case, contract. 



4. Almost any paper will do for drying grasses* It is not 

 necessary and not even advantageous to change the sheets on or in 

 which the specimens are lving. as the leaves are apt to curl up 



