ON THE FORMATION OF AN HERBARIUM. ,181 



it is highly importaat that paper of an uniform size should be used, 

 and that only one kind of plant be placed on each page. It is abso- 

 lutely impossible to refer to specimens at an after time, if they are 

 mixed with each other on the same sheets of paper. The study will 

 also be gieatly facilitated, if a catalogue is kept of the specimens, ar- 

 ranged under the separate botanical divisions to which they belong, 

 as also in accordance with the consecutive number, as collected. By 

 reference to the catalogue, you will be enabled to ascertain what 

 species you require to complete any particular genera, as also the par- 

 ticular localities where you have been most successful in obtaining 

 rare or choice plants. 



Those whose means will not enable them to obtain all the materials 

 we have enumerated, can still pursue the study, and enjoy all its de- 

 lightful associations and instructions, by the help of a very moderate 

 amount of ingenuity. The plants may be collected, and brought home 

 in the hand, and after being duly dried and prepared, may be mounted 

 on the leaves of old newspapers, and then stitched together. Very 

 beautiful imprints of leaves and dissected portions of plants may be 

 obtained by laying the specimens, of which copies are required, be- 

 tween two leather cushions, on one of which printers' ink has been thinly 

 spread, and then removing them to a sheet of white paper and press- 

 ing them down gently with the hand. A little experience will enable 

 the student to obtain beautiful impressions of leaves, petals, and other 

 parts of plants ; and as they are quite permanent, they will supersede 

 in some measure, the necessity of expensive works on physiological 

 botany. 



The reward of your trouble is a great one. In turning over these 

 leaves from Nature's own book, joux may travel all yoiu: adventures 

 again and again, without the expense of railway fare, or the incon- 

 venience of dust and rain. That clematis caUs to your mind the 

 luxuriant hedge-rows and chalk hills of Kent. That brilliant speci- 

 men of helianthemum vulgare brings you a picture of the rocky glen 

 and wild scenery of the rugged moimtains where it was gathered. 

 This pretty epilobium gives you a reminiscence of a sweet, quiet spring, 

 which gushes forth in a lovely green nook in a little village in Buck- 

 inghamshire. Another gives you a pleasant memory of a lonely green 

 wood, where the thrush and the blackbird carol joyously at sunrise. 

 A little Alpine plant, or even that common flower, the linaria 

 cymbalaria, will tell you of some old castle, which, with its high 



