INTRODUCTION. 17 



sun or air. The Stonecrop and House-leek, as well as the 

 Heaths, must be dipped for three or four minutes in boiling 

 water, before laying out ; if this be not done the juicy plants 

 will grow even for a long time after they are placed in the 

 papers, and the leaves of the Heaths will soon fall off; also, 

 Water Plants are better for being laid between folds of calico 

 for the first day. In drying plants blotting paper has been 

 considered the best, but any paper will answer the purpose, 

 that of which books are made, or brown paper, will do as well 

 as any other. 



Arranging. When the specimens have been properly dried 

 they may be arranged, and this should be according to some 

 system, as for example the Linnsean classes and orders ; and 

 that it may be done most conveniently, each plant should be 

 fastened to a separate piece of paper, in the following manner : 

 Wash over a sheet of paper with thick gum water, the thicker 

 the better, and let it dry perfectly ; then cut this into various- 

 sized strips, which will form bands to fasten on the plants with. 

 Thus furnished with materials, place the dried specimen upon 

 the paper intended for it, take up a proper-sized strip of gummed 

 paper, and having wetted the gummed side of it with the end 

 of the tongue, place it across some part of the specimen, then 

 another in another place, and so on till the whole is properly 

 fixed. Some persons glue their specimens down ; others sew 

 them on ; but the above method is far superior to either, and 

 is much less troublesome. Nothing now remains but to write 

 on the top of the paper the class and order, and at the bottom 

 of it the various Latin and English names, and the place where 

 the specimen was gathered. Most botanists keep these sheets 

 unconnected with each other, and have a separate piece of paper 

 for each plant. Others preserve their plants by fastening them 

 down to the right-hand pages of a book, and for the young 

 botanist this is perhaps the neatest method. 



