78 Country Rambles. 



when growing. For very delicate plants, instead of 

 Bentall, it is best to use sheets of clean white cotton- 

 wadding, with tissue paper, to prevent the specimens 

 clinging to the cotton when of adhesive nature. When 

 quite deprived of their juices, the specimens should 

 be transferred into sheets of white paper, and neatly 

 fastened down, not with gum arabic, which is apt to 

 smear and look untidy, but with a solution of caout- 

 chouc in naphtha, sold in the shops under the name of 

 "indiarubber cement." The great advantage of this is 

 that if any should exude from below the specimen, it 

 may, when dry, be rubbed off like a pencil mark. The 

 name of the plant, and the date and place where 

 gathered, should be written underneath. Giving a 

 summer to the work, it is surprising how soon a large 

 and beautiful collection of plants will accumulate, and 

 how rapidly we feel ourselves progressing in botanical 

 knowledge. Taking ordinary care, there is no reason 

 why plants should not look nearly as green and pretty 

 when dried as when living. If an herbarium be only a 

 heap of Latin hay, as sometimes happens, it is not that 

 the art of preserving plants is deceptive, but that the 

 collector has been clumsy or neglectful. Nor are dried 

 plants, as some esteem them, mere vegetable mummies, 

 wretched corpses devoid of all instructiveness or value, 

 for they are far more lively than drawings, and answer 

 all our questions with readiness. Many good botanists, 

 it is true, have done without such collections, showing 

 that they are by no means indispensable to the study of 



