130 WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION 



pressure, you can place weights on your press. 

 Old pails or oil-cans with handles, filled with 

 sand, make convenient weights. 



There are a few plants that must be pressed 

 in the fields, for it is generally impossible to 

 do so by the time home is reached. Rockroses 

 and Cranes' Bills shed their petals very 

 quickly and all species of the Convolvulus close 

 up soon after they are gathered; and what is 

 more, they absolutely refuse to open when 

 placed in water, but sulk until they die! 

 Choose a warm, still day for securing such 

 specimens, and take your press, note-book, 

 paint-brush and magnifying-glass with you 

 into the fields. The little Hog Peanut may, in 

 spite of its name, be made to look most attrac- 

 tive when pressed with the grass stem round 

 which it may be twining. 



When pressing Ox-eye Daisies and other 

 knobby flower-heads, cut a circle of blotting- 

 paper two to three inches in diameter, with 

 a circular hole in the middle, so that when 

 laid over the flower-head the golden disc peeps 

 through. A similar circle is cut in cotton-wool 

 or wadding and laid over this (see Plate IX) . 



