SPECIMENS. 371 



determined. Two sections of the flower should be made : one of 

 them vertical and directly through the centre, in the manner of 

 Fig. 336-341, this will display the adnation, insertion, &c., 

 of all the parts ; the other transverse and through the middle of 

 the ovaiy, also above the ovary when this is inferior, and if pos- 

 sible in the unopened but full-grown flower-bud ; this, among 

 other things, will bring to view the aestivation. (Fig. 351, 38G, 398, 

 &c.) Not rarely fruit and seeds are to be had at the same time, 

 or upon the same specimen, and these are equally to be investi- 

 gated. In fresh seeds, even those of minute size, the embryo 

 may almost always be extracted or brought to view under the 

 microscope, either by tearing away the seed-coat with needles or 

 by sections with a keen knife. When hard and dry, they have 

 only to be soaked or slightly boiled. 



774. Diagrams and also sketches of the parts should be made, 

 such as those referred to in the foregoing paragraph. Such 

 diagrams can be drawn by any one with a little practice ; and 

 the}- ma}- be made to express the whole floral structure, even to 

 the coalescence and adnation. 1 But in the process of determina- 

 tion the student should beware of trusting wholly to his diagrams 

 and sketches without direct verification. 



775. Dried specimens, when well prepared and in sufficient 

 abundance, in the hands of a skilled botanist are in most cases 

 but little inferior to fresh ones. When needed, flowers, or clus- 

 ters of blossoms, or fruits ma}' be detached and prepared for 

 examination and dissection by somewhat prolonged soaking in 

 warm water or by a short immersion in boiling water. This re- 

 stores flower-buds and small flowers and fruits, or their parts, to 

 a condition not essentially unlike the living state. Consequently, 

 the Herbarium or Hortus siccus of the botanist is to him more 

 essential than the botanical garden, important as that may be. 



776. Herborizing. 2 The collector's outfit will essentially con- 

 sist of a Vasculum or botanical box, a Portfolio, a Trowel, a pocket 

 Lens, and a small but stoutly covered Note-book. Some use a 

 portfolio only, others the botanical box ; but on a long excursion 

 it is well to have both. The former is preferable in most cases, 

 except when specimens are collected for the immediate use of a 



1 See Eichler's Bliithendiagramme (Leipsic, 1872, 1878), an admirable 

 work, which may serve as a model. 



2 These articles, from paragraph 776 to 802 inclusive, were obligingly pre- 

 pared, at the author's request, by LYMAN H. HOYSRADT, of Pine Plains, 

 New York. They form an abstract or a new edition of a series of notes on 

 the subject which were published in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical 

 Club, in the year 1878. 



