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bottom. If printed labels are used, so much the better. By this 

 means a genus can be found immediately, it being merely necessary 

 to raise the sheets seriatim at their folds, with the fingers of the i-ight 

 hand, and glance over the labels. The names of the species should 

 be written on the corresponding part of the white papers, which can 

 be run through in the same way as the blue ones, when a particular 

 plant is wanted ; and thus we are never under the necessity of open- 

 ing several papers when but one is required, nor liable to have the at- 

 tention diverted from the object in view. The genera may be grouped 

 together in sections, classes, or natural orders, according to the taste 

 of the owner. Where British plants only are collected, the Linnaean 

 system is unquestionably the better one to follow ; but for the more 

 extensive herbaria, which contain both indigenous and exotic plants, 

 the natural arrangement* is decidedly preferable. The groups of ge- 

 nera should be tied together in fasciculi, a piece of stout blue paste- 

 board, an inch larger each way than the papers, being placed both at 

 top and bottom, and hroad white tape used for tying, to prevent any 

 danger of cutting either paper or pasteboard. On the upper paste- 

 board should be fastened a slip of paper, containing the names of the 

 orders, classes or genera comprised in the fasciculus. If there are 

 several orders in the fasciculus, which it may be desirable to keep se- 

 parate, pieces of thinner pasteboard may be used for that purpose. 

 By giving a whole sheet to a species, any number of specimens may 

 be successively introduced on half sheets, without intrading on space 

 that can ill be spared, as must be the case in a hook of limited size ; 

 for surely no modern botanist is content with a single specimen of any 

 plant, and that probably only in flower. In a good collection, not 

 only is the fruit necessary, but, in many cases, the foliage in its dif- 

 ferent stages or conditions. Of Tussilago Farfara, for instance, five 

 or six specimens at least are necessary to illustrate the plant ; and 

 with regard to trees, a much larger number is requisite. I possess a 

 series of Fagus sylvatica, comprising about twenty specimens, the first 

 showing the expansion of the leaf-buds, and their beautiful rosy pe- 

 rules, and the last the ripe fruit, and yet am incomplete as regards 

 many of the intermediate stages. In ferns, grasses and Carices, the 

 necessity of numerous specimens is too obvious to be urged upon any 

 one. Now the constant accumulation of specimens, independently of 

 species, surely must be sadly at variance with such a plan of arrange- 

 ment as Mr. King's ; whereas by tying them in fasciculi, as above de- 



* As given, for instance, in Hooker's edition of Smith's ' Introduction to Botany.' 



