CHAPTER V 



ON COLLECTING AND PRESERVING PLANTS 



SOME hints on how to collect plants and dry and mount them 

 for an herbarium may be useful to some readers, particularly as the 

 subject is discussed either very briefly or not at all in most botanical 

 books. 



Plants can be collected and preserved in Switzerland, or any 

 other extra-tropical country, much in the same way as in the British 

 Isles. Specimens are usually put into a japanned or painted tin, 

 commonly called a vasculum ; while an ordinary large sponge-bag 

 would in the Alps be found a useful adjunct or alternative, for it 

 can easily be carried in the ruck-sack when on mountain expeditions, 

 and is more convenient than a tin. Sponge-bags are light and fairly 

 waterproof, and for many small fleshy plants, such as Saxifrages and 

 Sempervivums, they are both convenient and handy. Some 

 botanists, however, prefer to take into the field a light portfolio, 

 furnished with leather straps and sheets of drying-paper, so that 

 the plants, and particularly the more delicate ones, and those, 

 like Veronicas, whose blossoms drop easily, can be put straight 

 into paper, and sorted and rearranged in a proper press on returning 

 to the house. We do not, however, much recommend the use of 

 such a portable press, especially as it wastes time and is quite useless 

 in wet or windy weather. 



Many of the tins carried by young botanists are bought ready- 

 made, and are too short. For ordinary purposes the tin should be 

 about fifteen inches long, seven or eight inches wide, and about 

 two and a half or three inches deep. It should have rounded edges, 

 and the opening, which is on the broad side, should be large enough 

 to admit average specimens without difficulty or needless doubling. 

 The cover to the opening is attached by a couple of hinges, and it 

 fastens at the side by a sliding wire bolt. If this should work loose 

 and there be danger of the lid falling open when carried, the bolt 

 can be bent the least bit out of the straight and it will then hold 

 firmly. The plant-tin is most conveniently carried from the 

 shoulders by a leather strap ; but sometimes it has a thick wire 

 handle at the top, which is convenient on occasion. On hot days 

 the vasculum should be kept as much as possible out of the sun, 

 for the metal gets very hot if exposed to brilliant sunshine. To 



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