476 NATURE'S TEACHINGS. 



for obtaining printed reproductions of plants and other objects 

 upon paper, in a manner so truthful, that only a close inspection 

 reveals the fact of their being copies ; and so distinctly sensible 

 even to touch are the impressions, that it is difficult to 

 persuade those unacquainted with the manipulation that they 

 are an emanation of the printing-press. 



" The distinguishing feature of the process consists, first, in 

 impressing natural objects such as plants, mosses, seaweeds, 

 and feathers into plates of metal, causing, as it were, the objects 

 to engrave themselves by pressure ; secondly, in being able to 

 take such casts or copies of the impressed plates as can be 

 printed from at the ordinary copper-plate press. 



*' This secures, in the case of a plant, on the one hand, a 

 perfect representation of its characteristic outline, of some of 

 the other external marks by which it is known, and even in 

 some measure of its structure, as in the venation of ferns and 

 the ribs of the leaves of flowering plants ; and, on the other, 

 affords the means of multiplying copies in a quick and easy 

 manner, at a trifling expense compared with the result, and to 

 an unlimited extent. 



" The great defect of all pictorial representations of botanical 

 figures has consisted in the inability of art to represent faith- 

 fully those minute peculiarities by which natural objects are 

 often best distinguished. Nature-printing has therefore come 

 to the aid of this branch of science in particular, whilst its 

 future development promises facilities for copying other objects 

 of nature, the reproduction of which is not within the province 

 of the human hand to execute ; and even if it were possible, 

 it would involve an amount of labour scarcely commensurate 

 with the results. 



" Possessing the advantages of rapid and economic production, 

 the means of unlimited multiplication, and, above all, unsur- 

 passable resemblance to the original, nature-printing is calcu- 

 lated to assist much in facilitating not only the first- sight 

 recognition of many objects in natural history, but in supplying 

 the detailed evidences of identification, which must prove of 

 essential value to botanical science in particular/* 



Many plans have been tried with only partial success, but 

 that which is now in operation produces the most wonderful 

 results. The plants are laid upon sheets of lead, and then 



