130 ON PRESERVING SPECIMENS OF PLANTS. 



had, and in wild uninhabited regions, it is better to have two or more 

 pasteboards of the size of the paper in which your specimens are 

 dried, and some stout cord or leather straps. Having gathered 

 specimens until you are apprehensive of their shrivelling, fill each 

 sheet of paper with as many as it will contain ; and having thus 

 formed a good stout bundle, place it between the pasteboards, and 

 compress it with your cord or straps. In the evening, or at the first 

 convenient opportunity, unstrap the package, take a fresh sheet of 

 paper, and make it very dry and hot before the fire : into this sheet 

 so heated, transfer the specimens in the first of the papers in your 

 package ; then dry that sheet, and shift into it the specimens lying 

 in the second sheet, and so go on till all your specimens are shifted ; 

 then strap up the package anew, and repeat the operation at every 

 convenient opportunity till the plants are dry. They should then be 

 transferred to fresh paper, tied up rather loosely, and laid by. Should 

 the botanist be stationary, he may dry his paper in the sun ; if the 

 number of specimens for preparation is inconsiderable, put them 

 between cushions, in a press resembling a napkin press, laying it in 

 the sun, or before a hot fire. It is extremely important that spe- 

 cimens should be dried quickly, otherwise they are apt to become 

 mouldy and rotten, or black, and to fall in pieces. Notwithstanding 

 all the precautions that can be taken, some plants, such as Orchidese, 

 will fall in pieces in drying : when this is the case, the fragments are 

 to be carefully preserved, in order to be put together when the spe- 

 cimen is finally glued down. In many cases, particularly those of 

 Coniferre, Ericre, &c, the leaves may be prevented falling off by 

 plunging the specimen, when newly gathered, for a minute into boiling 

 water. The great object in drying a specimen is to preserve its 

 colour, if possible, which is not often the case, and not to press it so 

 flat as to crush any of the parts, because that renders it impossible 

 subsequently to analyse them. When specimens have been thoroughly 

 dried, they should be fastened by strong glue, not gum, nor paste, 

 to half a sheet of good stout white paper : the place where they were 

 found, or the person from whom they were obtained, should be written 

 at the foot of each specimen, and the name at the lowest right hand 

 corner. If anv of the flowers or fruits, or seeds, be loose, they should 

 be put into small paper cases, which may be glued in some conve- 

 nient place to the paper. These cases are extremely useful; and 



