314 APPENDIX 



III. HOW TO PRESERVE PLANTS 



Lay the plants or twigs between sheets of newspaper, cover the 

 paper with a fairly smooth board, place stones or other objects 

 weighing from five to twenty pounds on the board. The first 

 paper with the plants may be laid on a dry wooden floor or table ; 

 use as much paper and as many boards as you may require. 

 Change the paper every twenty-four hours, until the plants feel 

 entirely dry to' the touch, then fasten them on uniform sheets of 

 white paper by means of gummed paper strips. Write the name of 

 the plant, the date of collection, and other desirable data on each 

 sheet. Fruit and seed of plants are best kept in paper boxes. 

 Keep these plants in a perfectly dry place. 



Some care should be exercised that children do not come in con- 

 tact with Poison Ivy, as this results sometimes in serious cases of 

 skin poisoning. Study carefully the figures of the poison ivy, 

 and of the Virginia creeper. 



The Virginia Creeper is also called Woodbine and American 

 Ivy. A very common, woody vine, climbing extensively by ten- 

 drils as well as by rootlets. Small greenish flowers in July; black 

 or bluish berries, ripe in October, resembling wild grapes, and remain- 

 ing on the vines over winter. Each leaf generally consisting of 

 jive leaflets', leaves turning bright crimson in fall. Leaves and 

 berries are both harmless. 



The Poison Ivy, or Poison Oak. Leaves consisting of three leajlets 

 each; berries whitish, remaining on the plant over winter. In 

 central Minnesota this plant is generally a low, erect shrub, from 

 six to eighteen inches high, but it sometimes climbs over rocks or 

 ascends trees. Some people are seriously poisoned by touching 

 the plant. 



Children cannot be too strongly warned against eating plants or 

 fruits of whose harmless nature they are not absolutely certain. A 

 child that has eaten of a poisonous plant should at once be given 

 something that will cause vomiting, and a physician should be 

 called as soon as possible. 



See V. K. Chestnut. Some Common Poisonous Plants. 

 F. V. Coville. Recent Cases of Mushroom Poisoning. Both 

 published by the United States Department of Agriculture. 



