4] 
from decay to have them opened, the contents extracted, and 
bodies stuffed with cotton, wet with the solution of corrosive 
sublimate. 
Some camphor, or strong perfume of any kind, should be 
placed in the boxes along with the insects, secured in paper or 
cotton, so as not to roll against them, which will assist in keep- 
ing away destructive insects and preventing mouldiness. 
BOTANICAL SPECIMENS. 
Persons residing abroad, but particularly in tropical climate, 
possess the means of furnishing innumerable interesting speci- 
mens in this department, since not only the plants themselves, 
but their flowers, leaves, fruits, seeds, seed-vessels, and woods, 
all supply useful materials for a museum. 
To form Specimens for a Herbal. 
The plants should be gathered on a dry day, some selected 
which are in flower, and some also in seed, if possible. When 
the plant is small, it may be taken entire, even with the root; 
when it is large, the branches should be cut about sixteen in- 
ches long. Many which are longer, if very slender, such as 
grasses, ferns, &c. may be doubled once, or oftener, without 
injury. When the specimens in flower, from their size or mode 
of growth, cannot be preserved with the leaves attached, a por- 
tion of the plant with leaves should be preserved separately. 
The plants are to be preserved by means of pressure under a 
board, with a weight on it, extended between leaves of any or- 
dinary kind of paper, the quantity proportioned to the nature of 
the plants; those which are succulent, or have woody or knobby 
stems, requiring more than those of a dry nature or thin sub- 
stance. The natural aspect is best preserved by allowing the 
specimen to retain the same direction of its Jeaves, branches, &c. 
as when growing. The paper requires to be changed every three 
or four days, till the plants are perfectly dry, which soon hap- 
pens, when they may be laid aside with a single leaf of paper 
between each plant, to be packed at convenience. Sea weeds 
