xxii DRYING PLANTS, HERBARIUM, DRAWING PLANTS, &c. 



As an example of application, suppose we take species 341, variety 8, the tally will be 

 cut thus : 



341 8 



The long cut ( ) between the number of the species and the number of the variety is 

 merely to separate the one from the other, and is to be considered as the sign of separation. 

 By the use of this sign several numbers may be cut on one stick : it is a fixed rule that the 

 number shall always read from the root or sharpened end of the tally, because it is necessary 

 for the operator to hold that end in his hand in cutting the marks. Names written on tallies, 

 on the contrary, should always read from the top, by which means the letters are kept at 

 the greatest practicable distance from the soil. 



DRYING PLANTS AND FORMING A HERBARIUM. 



THE best mode for gardeners, and such as have little spare time to dry specimens of 

 plants, is to gather them when perfectly free from exterior moisture, place them between 

 paper, and press them with bags of hot sand. In this way they dry of their natural color in 

 a few hours. (Mag,' Nut. Hist. vol. i. p. 196.) Or they may be dried in sand. (Ibid. vol. iii.) 

 To fill up a space that would otherwise remain an unseemly blank, we shall here observe, 

 that every gardener ought to dry plants and form them into a herbarium. The herbarium 

 may be a folio volume of stout thick paper, white, if he can afford it ; if not, brown ; allowing 

 in binding the thickness of a leaf for every page, in order that, when filled with specimens, it 

 may shut close and preserve its form. Mr. Toward, who has formed one of the handsomest gar- 

 dener's herbariums we have any where seen, in four thick folio volumes, uses cartridge paper, 

 pasting to the back of each leaf a leaf of brown blotting paper, and round the margin of 

 both surfaces of the double leaf so formed strips of cartridge paper. These strips rather 

 more than compensate for the thickness of the dried specimens ; so that when the leaves are 

 bound up, their edges cut, arid the books shut close, the external air is excluded, and the 

 appearance as neat as that of any printed volume. (Gard. Mag. vol. iv. p. 463.) The 

 specimens, as dried in sand, or between loose leaves of paper or in any old book, may be fixed 

 to the cartridge side of the leaves of the herbarium book, according to any arrangement which 

 may be preferred. 



DRAWING PLANTS, FLOWERS, FRUITS, &c. 



EVERY gardener ought also to be able to draw plants; and this he may acquire himself by 

 copying with a pen or pencil, without the aid of colors (for all the essential objects of 

 drawings may be effected by lines), the outlines of the ribs, veins, and other inner lines 

 of the different parts of the dried specimens as they lie flat before him on the paper. 

 Having practised this for some time, he may then draw plants, flowers, and fruits from na- 

 ture ; beginning by washing one side of a pane of glass over with gum, holding that when dry 

 between his eye and the plant or other object to be drawn, and then tracing the object with the 

 point of a nail in the gum, or on it with the point of a black-lead pencil. ( Gard. Mag. vol. vi. 

 p. 305.) The outline of hard fruits, such as the apple and pear, may be correctly taken by 

 dividing them into two parts, as may that of soft fruits if not too ripe. ( Gard. Mag. vol. iv. 

 p. 230. ) Every gardener ought also to be able to draw landscapes, figures, and animals, all 

 manner of garden implements and structures, and plans of gardens and maps of estates. This 

 he may acquire himself by copying the various engravings in our Encyclopedias of Gardening 

 and Agriculture ; and for plans, maps, and landscape-scenery more particularly, by copying 

 the elementary plate (PL 1. sold by itself, under the title of Elementary Details for Pictorial 

 Map-drauing, for 3s. 6d. ) of our Illustrations of Landscape- Gardening and Garden Archi- 

 tecture. He may afterwards draw figures and landscapes from nature, first through a gummed 

 pane of glass, and next on paper ; and finally, measure and draw from nature implements 

 and buildings, and map gardens, parks, and farms. 



On correctly applying, pronouncing, and spelling the names of plants ; on drawing plans 

 neatly, and being able to produce off hand a sketch of any thing ; on being able to measure 

 and value all kinds of country work ; above all, on good penmanship, spelling, and writing 

 a correct and intelligent letter, much of the success in life of a gardener depends. Without i 

 possessing these qualities, by a regular course of education at school, or determining to ' 

 labour hard at self-instruction till he has possessed them, no young man in the present I 

 improving age should attempt the profession. 



