124 WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION 



never be overdone or the plant will look un- 

 natural ; but almost anything is preferable to a 

 confused mass of leaves so closely overlapping 

 that all ideas of form and arrangement are 

 lost. Note which leaves or branches may be 

 best dispensed with and snip them off with the 

 scissors. 



Plants must be pressed in natural positions, 

 so that when gathering them you should notice 

 how they grow. Trailing plants must trail in 

 the press or they will never do so on the 

 mounts. Drooping flowers must droop and 

 not be tortured into a vertical position ; while 

 those whose growth is severely upright should 

 be pressed and mounted in this way and not in 

 a slanting line across the paper. Plants are 

 sometimes found growing in an unusual way, 

 but the characteristic growth is the one that 

 should be chosen for the herbarium. 



Look at the wizened little piece of Wild 

 Yamroot shown at the left of Plate VII, and 

 imagine what effect a number of such objects 

 would have upon your spirits ! Yet this is the 

 way many people press and mount their speci- 

 mens. The plant looks like some poor victim 



