20 WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION 



but it is this same knowledge that helps to 

 make the herbarium natural and lovely. 



A collection of dried plants need not be pro- 

 saic and the specimens need not look " man- 

 gled and miserable." The truth is that many 

 botanists in the past had more learning than 

 patience and common sense, and their collec- 

 tions have so discouraged the younger gen- 

 eration of naturalists that many of these have 

 given up pressing any but their rarer " finds." 

 This is a great pity for if plants are care- 

 fully and sensibly pressed most of them re- 

 main beautiful to the end, and when mounted 

 they are of infinitely greater value than any 

 colored plate or printed description. 



You may think that detailed instructions 

 for preserving plants are rather prosaic, and 

 that there is little romance or poetry about 

 drying-papers ; but though yours is only pre- 

 servative work the same complaint may be 

 made of the tools used in creative art. There 

 is nothing specially attractive in a sculptor's 

 chisel or in charcoal and canvas, and no po- 

 etical charm about a tube of paint; though I 

 will admit that this last seems most delightful 



