DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY. 



xxi 



ered with enameled cloth, to protect it from moisture. This 

 portfolio should contain a stock of thin, unsized paper, 

 such as the poorest printing-paper, or grocer's tea-paper. 

 It is often convenient to have a close tin box, for preserv- 

 ing specimens, to be examined at home while fresh. Such 

 a box, or vasculum, is shown strapped upon the collector 

 in Fig. B. It shuts 

 close, and has two 

 compartments: the 

 large one, with a 

 door in the side, 

 nearly as long as 

 the box ; and a 

 small one, two or 

 three inches deep, 

 with a door in the 

 end, for receiving- 

 small, delicate 

 specimens of any 

 kind. 



If the collector 

 wishes to prepare 



an herbarium, his specimens must be gathered with great 

 care, and pains must be taken to get average examples of 

 each species. If possible, they should be gathered in dry 

 weather. Herbs should be gathered when in flower and in 

 fruit. They should be taken by the root, and, if it is not too 

 large, this should be pressed, along with the rest, to show 

 whether the plant is annual, biennial, or perennial. Thick 

 roots, bulbs, tubers, and the like, should be thinned with 

 a knife, or cut in slices, lengthwise. Buds and fruit should 

 be obtained, as well as the expanded flower. All three may 

 sometimes be found upon the same plant, but generally 

 they will have to be obtained at different times, unless, in- 

 deed, you are able to find buds, flowers, and fruit, all at 

 once, upon plants in different stages of development. 



FIG. B. A Collector at Work. 



