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By Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq. 235 
no additional light on the subjects, for the elucidation of which 
they are to be preserved. It would also be desirable to endeavour 
to make a specimen serve two or more purposes. For instance, 
say that you require specimens in three stages of growth, it may 
occasionally be managed to make these three specimens also illus- 
trate three localities or sections of the county. 
Fifthly, Useful directions for the collecting and drying of plants 
having been printed in “ Balfour’s Class Book of Botany,” it is 
only necessary here to refer botanists to that work for ample in- 
structions on those processes, unless it be added that nothing 
perhaps conduces so much to the beauty and good preservation of 
specimens, as the employment of an ample stock of paper. The 
paper used for the process of drying plants should be moderately 
absorbent, so as to take up the moisture of the plants, and at the 
same time to dry rapidly after being used. That which is gener- 
ally employed is Bentall’s, and is the best paper now made in 
England.! The size recommended is eighteen inches long, by eleven 
broad. If the paper be sufficiently porous for rapidly absorbing 
the moisture of the plants, and sufficient in quantity for preventing 
the dampness of one layer of them from extending to others, it 
will commonly be found the best practice not to change the papers 
until the specimens have become so dry as no longer to require 
the pressure of weights on the boards. 
Frequent changing of paper and the application of artificial heat 
may prove needful in drying very succulent plants, but with plenty of 
paper these processes may safely be looked upon as an unnecessary 
waste of time, and they are often more injurious than beneficial to 
the specimens themselves. In addition to the dried specimens for 
fastening on paper, contributors are particularly requested to send 
also small packets of the seeds of local and rare plants, when 
opportunities occur for obtaining them; seeds often affording clear 
characters for the discrimination of genera and species. 
Lastly. It is trusted that the Contributors to the Herbarium will 
‘find a recompense for their exertions in the gratification of learning 
1 Bentall’s ‘‘ Botanical Drying Paper” can be obtained from the Agent, Mr, 
‘Edward Newman, 9, Devonshire Street, Bishopsgate, London. 
VOL. X.—NO. XXX, R 
