32 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



the first day, but the flowers and delicate leaves of some plants will 

 shrivel if the pressure is not even and adequate. However, many 

 a youthful collector is apt to forget that drying is the chief thing, 

 and that the pressure can be easily overdone. At the first changing 

 of papers the specimens can be rearranged while pliable, and super- 

 abundant parts removed with scissors. Any stems with broken 

 or ragged ends should also be cut clean. When quite fresh many 

 specimens do not so easily yield to necessary treatment as now. 



Generally it is better to leave plants in the tin, rather than put 

 them in water, if it is inconvenient to press them within one or two 

 days, while many small kinds would remain fresh a week in the tin 

 if in a cool place, though both leaves and flowers might lose some 

 colour during that time. Most of the very thick or fleshy portions 

 of plants, such as the head of a thistle, the bulb of a Daffodil, or 

 the stem of an Orobanche, should be cut in two before being dried. 

 In fact, the whole of a thick Orobanche or of a plant like Campanula 

 thyrsoidea had better be split in two from top to bottom. Usually 

 both halves are worth preserving. Woody stems also are better 

 split in two, or at any rate thinned. 



In order to aid the drying of any such thick or fleshy plants or 

 portions of plants, it is well to make pads of cotton-wool and place 

 them both above and below the specimens. Cotton-wool can be 

 bought in long sheets and easily cut with scissors the size of the 

 drying-paper. It is better that the plants should not touch the 

 cotton-wool itself ; but useful and more or less permanent pads 

 can very quickly be made by loosely stitching together with a 

 needle and thread a pair of folded sheets of drying-paper with the 

 wool inside. 



Many succulent plants such as Orchids, Lilies, Sedums, and 

 Semper vivums can be dried with the help of these pads, but it is 

 best first to dip them in boiling water up to the base of the flowers. 

 This kills the plant at once, and enables it to be dried more quickly, 

 and with much less loss of colour. Thick Orchids should always be 

 killed in this way, and their tubers and stems might first be pricked 

 with the point of a knife to hasten the process of scalding, for the 

 final result, particularly in regard to the green colour of the leaves, 

 makes it well worth the trouble. Dipping in boiling water is also 

 recommended in the case of Heaths, which shed their leaves while 

 being dried. 



With the help of the notebook or diary already referred to, it 

 is well to write on a rough, temporary label the name of the plant, 

 if known, the place where it came from, date, and approximate 

 altitude. It is interesting sometimes to add the kind of soil or 

 geological formation. These labels should be placed with the 

 specimens they refer to, and afterwards copied when the plants are 

 mounted. If a series of one species or variety, especially when 

 belonging to a critical genus, be collected, every example should 



