1886. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 131 
of growth. Of course I well know that in that early botanical day the facili- 
ties for collecting and preserving were very poor, as journeys were made amid 
great danger and hardship. It is almost a wonder that anything collected by 
the pioneers of the western wilds has been preserved to us. 
Do not collect specimens in the rain or when the dew is on, if it can be 
avoided, and always collect the best specimens, those that represent the habit of 
growth. Have a portfolio to lay them in immediately after gathering; the 
use of a tin box for that purpose is obsolete. The portfolio I use is made of 
two pieces of binders’ board, each twelve by eighteen inches, and covered 
with leather, the pieces being so joined together as to form a book about 
the heat might be evenly distributed.—Isaac C. MARTINDALE. 
Nearly thirty years ago, in connection with Messrs. Bebb, Canby and others, 
then young botanists, having done what I could to improve the quality of her- 
barium specimens and not have them mere collections of “ dried tea leaves,” I 
am glad to say a word in behalf of making a herbarium a “ thing of beauty,” 
mens are “a joy forever,” so that it is always a new delight to get from them 
a fresh package, and the temptation is generally irresistible to add every one 
to my herbarium, no matter how many of that species I may already have. 
While there are others who are able to send rare and interesting species, their 
Specimens constantly excite a righteous indignation that man should have it in 
