178 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



find, that in the place of a rich flower, he has a ball of downy seeds, 

 the change having taken place during the drying of the plant. Some 

 of the small spurges will begin to eject their seeds in aU directions, 

 with great force, the moment they are released from the pressure of 

 the drying boards, although the plant appears dry and dead. The 

 foliage of some pines and fir trees is apt to crumble into powder after 

 the drying process ; this is owing to the resin which they contain, 

 and which gets hard and brittle. The best method in this case is to 

 plunge the plant into boiling water for a few minutes before placing 

 it between the boards for drying. The silver fir is particularly liable 

 to this, and some specimens become nothing else than leafless sticks 

 in the course of a few years. As a rule, it is a bad plan to place 

 plants in water in order to revive them before they are laid out for 

 drying, although, with judgment, it may sometimes be useful. These 

 remarks apply to the ordinary flowering pknts of the fields, but there 

 are some which offer rich rewards in their beauty and economy, if the 

 student can succeed in preparing them. The extensive class of fungi 

 are among these, and they are mostly very difficult of preparation. 

 Some of the dry, firm kinds, as the agarics, may be wrapped up care- 

 fully in clean blotting paper, and laid near the fire, or in some warm 

 place, to dry, and with care will turn out very good specimens ; but 

 those of a moist, delicate nature, will tax the ingenuity of a beginner. 

 To speak individually in this case, we usually make a few trips dur- 

 ing autumn to collect these plants ; we take with us a small collecting 

 box, furnished with blotting paper, for the dry and firm kinds, and a 

 few tin boxes, nearly filled with silver sand, for the moist and jelly - 

 like specimens : these latter should be carefully handled, and when a 

 quantity of sand has been removed from a box, the fungus should be 

 laid in it and the sand gently strewed upon it, until it is perfectly 

 covered. Some botanists have very large sand bores in which to dry 

 their fungi, but experience has satisfied ourselves that it is better to 

 have several smaller boxes made of tin, so that only a few specimens 

 can be placed together; and this method gives the additional advan- 

 tage of enabling us to put specimens of a kiT]dred together, as it is a 

 less easy matter to determine the species after diying than at the 

 time they are collected. The specimens may be transferred from the 

 collecting boxes into these larger boxes, or may be dried in those in 

 which they were first placed, and after having been carefully covered 

 with sand, must be placed near a fire. They will require to be taken 



