HOK 



nuts. If a press cannot easily be had, 

 books may be employed. Next some 

 quires of unsized blotting paper must be 

 provided. The specimens, when taken 

 out of the tin box, must be carefully 

 spread on a piece of pasteboard, covered 

 with a single sheet of the paper quite 

 dry ; then place three or four sheets of 

 the same paper above the plant, to im- 

 bibe the moisture as it is pressed out ; it 

 is then to be put into the press. As many 

 plants as the press will hold may be piled 

 up m this manner. At first they ought to 

 be pressed gently. After being pressed 

 for twenty -four hours or so, the plants 

 ought to be examined, that any leaves or 

 petals which have been folded may be 

 spread out, and dry sheets of paper laid 

 over them. They may now be replaced 

 in the press, and a greater degree of 

 pressure applied. The press ought to 

 stand near a fire, or in the sunshine. Af- 

 ter remaining two days in this situation, 

 they should be again examined, and dry 

 sheets of paper be laid over them. The 

 pressure then ought to be considerably 

 increased. After remaining three days 

 longer in the press, the plants may be 

 taken out, and such as are sufficiently dry 

 may be put in a dry sheet of writing pa- 

 per. Those plants which are succulent 

 may require more pressure, and the blos- 

 som paper again renewed. Plants which 

 dry very quickly, ought to be pressed 

 with considerable force when first put 

 into the press ; and if delicate, the blos- 

 som paper should be changed every day. 

 When the stem is woody, it may be thin- 

 ned with a knife, and if the flower be 

 thick or globular, as the thistle, one side 

 of it may be cut away, as all that is neces- 

 sary, in a specimen, is to preserve the 

 character of the class, order, genus, and 

 species. Plan's may be dried in a box of 

 sand in a more expeditious manner, and 

 this method preserves the colour of some 

 plants better. The specimens, after be- 

 ing pressed for ten or twelve hours, must 

 be laid within a sheet of blossom paper. 

 The box must contain an inch deep of 

 fine dry sand, on which the sheet is to be 

 placed, and then covered with sand an 

 inch ttxjck; another sheet may then be de- 

 posited in the same manner, and so on, 

 till the box be full. The b< x must be 

 placed near a fire for two or three days. 

 Then the sand must be carefully remov- 

 ed, and the plants examined. If not suf- 

 ficiently dried, they may again be replac- 

 ed in the same manner for a day or two. 

 In drying plants with a hot smoothing 

 iron, they must be placed within several 



HOS 



sheets of blotting paper, and ironed till 

 they become sufficiently dry. This me- 

 thod answers best for drying succulent 

 and mucilaginous plants. When proper- 

 ly dried, the specimens should be placed 

 in sheets of writing-paper, and may be 

 slightly fastened by making the top and 

 bottom of the stalk pass through a slip of 

 the paper, cut nearly for the purpose. 

 Then the name of the genus and species 

 should be written down, the place where 

 it was found, nature of the soil, and the 

 season of the year. These specimens may 

 be collected into genera, orders, and 

 classes, and titled and preserved in a port- 

 folio or cabinet. Tha method of preserv- 

 ing many of the cryptogamous plants is 

 more difficult, on account of the greater 

 quantity of moisture which they con- 

 tain, and the greater delicacy of their 

 texture. 



HOSPITALS, are institutions founded 

 for the relief of the sick and miserable. 



HOSPITAL, Pennsylvania. This is one 

 of the best organized institutions in the 

 United States. The following account of 

 it, together with hints for amending its 

 police, is extracted from a work, entitled 

 " A Treatise, containing a plan for the 

 internal organization and government of 

 Marine Hospitals, in the United States," 

 &c. by Dr. Wm. P. C. Barton, professor 

 of botany in the university of Pennsyl- 

 vania : 



Jin account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, 

 audits internal police 



It is obvious, that in proposing regula- 

 tions and arrangements for the internal 

 administration of hospitals, whether.naval, 

 military, or civil, or in suggesting plans 

 for the structure of wards, and other do- 

 mestic contrivances, but 'little can be of- 

 fered that is new. In both cases, the best 

 we can do is, to take a view of some of 

 the similar institutions in highest repute, 

 and cull from their various and well-de- 

 vised plans, such as are most useful, and 

 consistent with the principles of econo- 

 my and neatness. 



With this view, I deem it far from ir- 

 relevant to the object of this work, to 

 present some account of an institution, 

 with the internal police of which I have 

 long been familiarized ; and which I be- 

 lieve, from a comparative view with the 

 first hospitals of England, to be one of the 

 best conducted institutions of the kind, 

 perhaps, in any country. The hospitals 

 of London are, it is true, conducted on a 

 much more extensive plan : St. Thomas's, 





