92 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



abundance of sap contained in the stem and leaves ; but this may- 

 be remedied by observing the following mode, by which we have 

 dried a great quantity of this sort ■ — Provide some coarse brown 

 paper for the purpose, and after arranging the specimen for drying, 

 cover it with five or six layers of the same sort of paper ; then with 

 a well-heated iron proceed to iron the covering paper, till all the 

 moisture is drawn out of the specimen. Sometimes the papers will 

 require changing and the iron reheated before the drying is 

 finished. 



It now only remains to speak on the arrangement of the speci- 

 mens, after they are dried, in the Hortus Siccus, which we shall do 

 as briefly as possible. The herbarium should be a thick volume of 

 the folio size, composed of cartridge paper, well supplied at the 

 back with guards, so that when the volume is filled with specimens 

 the front may not be wider than the back, which would be the case 

 without them. There should also be four clasps on the outside 

 edges, two on the front and one on each end, with different liuks to 

 keep the volume close while filling and when full. The arranging 

 them in any particular manner must be left to the person's taste. 

 Some arrange them in alphabetical order, some by the natural 

 system, some one way, and some another. We have arranged ours 

 by the Linn;ran classification. 



If arranged in any of these ways, all the species of one genus 

 must be kept together, and the arrangement should not be com- 

 menced till a sufficient quantity is collected ; but if promiscuously, 

 they may be fastened down as soon as dried. When the arrange- 

 ment is fixed on and a sufficient number on hand, proceed to fasten 

 them down with narrow slips of dark-green paper wherever they 

 may require it, and the descriptions should be written in the 

 following manner : — 



No. 67. 



Capparis Zeylanica, 



Stove evergreen shrub, 



Ceylon, 1819. White. 



Take care always to keep the collection very close and a little 

 pressed, without which the specimens, however dry they may be, 

 will attract the humidity of the air, and again get out of form. It 

 must also be kept in the driest part of the house, and rather on 

 the first than the ground-floor. 



Amaryllis. — It is better to retain 'them in the pots, and by turning the 

 latter on their sides, the bulbs may be dried quite as effectually as shaking 

 the roots out of the soil. As soon as the bulbs show signs of returning action, 

 they should be repotted into a rich, loamy soil, made perfectly open and pervious 

 to air and moisture by the addition of sand, and then plunged into a moderate 

 bottom-heat, when the flowers will soon become apparent ; when fully expanded 

 the plants may be removed to a cooler place to preserve their beauty, but when 

 the flowers are past, the plants should be taken back to the stove, and encouraged 

 to grow by every possible means, because it is on the vigour of the current year's 

 leaves and their secretions that the bloom for the succeeding years depends. 



