OBSERVATIONS ON DRYING rLANTS. 2[)[) 



his memory, or for instituting a more minute examination than he 

 had previously made. A collection of dried plants was formerly 

 called Hortus siccus, but now universally Herbarium. Various 

 methods are in use for drying plants, but the following, being simple, 

 efficacious, attended with little difficulty, and one that I have very 

 successfully pursued for twelve years, induces me to offer it to the 

 notice of your numerous readers. 



The articles necessary for the accomplishment of the object in 

 view are, a quantity of smooth, soft paper, of large size, eight boards 

 of the same size, about an inch thick, of hard wood ; four iron weights 

 or pieces of lead, two of them about forty pounds weight, the others 

 half that number. Or in place of these weights a number of clean 

 bricks may be used, or, in short, any heavy bodies of convenient form. 

 Along with these articles, a botanical box is necessary. This box is 

 made of tin, and varies in size, from nine inches to two feet in length, 

 according to the taste and avidity of the collector. 



In gathering plants for this purpose, such as are smaller than the 

 size of the paper are to be taken up roots and all. In many cases, 

 portions only of plants can be preserved, on account of their size, and 

 then the most essential parts are to be selected, including always the 

 ilowers ; avoid all imperfect or monstrous shoots, but if the leaves 

 are generally dissimilar on various parts of the species, as is fre- 

 cpuently the case in herbaceous plants, then examples of both ought 

 to be preserved. Plants to be preserved are to be gathered in dry 

 weather, and immediately deposited in the tin box, which prevents their 

 becoming shrivelled by evaporation. If gathered in wet weather, they 

 must be laid out for some time on a table or elsewhere to undergo a 

 partial drying. When roots have been taken up along with the 

 stems, they ought to be first washed, and then exposed for some time 

 to the air. 



Suppose now that a dozen specimens are procured, over one of 

 the boards lay two or three sheets of the paper, on the uppermost 

 of which spread out the plant to be dried, unfolding its various 

 parts, not however so as to injure its natural appearance. A few of 

 the flowers and leaves ought to be laid out with particular care, and in 

 many cases, those of Ericae, &c, the specimen ought to be plunged 

 for a minute into boiling water, which I have always found to pre- 

 vent their leaves falling off. Over this specimen lay half a dozen 



