PREPARING SPECIMENS. 95 



spores will be formed, and in this state the section loses 

 much of its beauty and interest. 



To prepare mosses for the herbarium is a matter of little 

 difficulty. First of all, they will require to be pressed, either 

 between folds of proper botanical drying paper, or in some 

 other absorbent paper ; old newspaper will serve, but not so 

 well as the botanical drying paper. 



The pressure should be slight, not more than about 14 

 Ibs. If the tufts are large, it is better to break them up 

 into convenient- sized pieces, but not too much. The habit of 

 the plant should always be shown, if possible. Where pos- 

 sible, it is of advantage to reserve a portion impressed, i.e. 

 simply allowing it to dry in the opened paper. Fragile or 

 delicate species may be folded in thin cap paper, so that 

 they may be removed from the drying papers without loss 

 or hurt. And unless the specimens are very wet, three or 

 four days' pressing will be enough, changing the drying 

 papers each day. 



When the specimens are dirty, as they often are in very 

 wet weather, they may'be washed by holding the specimen in 

 the palm of the hand and allowing a stream of water to 

 trickle on to them ; they may then be dried with a rough cloth, 

 and transferred to the press. It will be found advisable to 

 remove any roots or leaves of grass, etc., from the tufts 

 before they are pressed ; it will be much more readily done 

 when they are still fresh than afterwards. 



When properly pressed, the specimens may be fixed upon 

 sheets of note or other paper with gum, glue, or paste, or, 

 better still, sewn on. The sheets should be of some fixed 

 size, or some multiple of this. I find sheets of commercial 

 note paper a very convenient size for large specimens, half 

 sheets for smaller ones, and so on. It is also advisable to 

 have specimens from more localities thap one, and all the 

 sheets of any one species should be fixed on one larger sheet. 

 I use quarter sheets of double crown paper, 15 x 10, for 

 pinning my smaller sheets upon ; and I keep each species to 

 a separate sheet, using a separate sheet for varieties. When 

 the genus is a small one, I put all the species of a genus in 

 a fold of thicker paper, stout cartridge or brown paper ; and 



