1886. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 133 
‘lectors are too scientific to be neat; but great care should be taken that in 
being neat the scientific features are not sacrificed. 
In pressing I use a pressure of from 100 to 300 pounds, according to the 
character of the plants, or the number in press at one time. 
Grasses and carices can be dried very quickly and well by using driers just 
after they are brought in from the hot sunshine; but for almost all other 
plants the driers should be thoroughly cooled before they are used, or else the 
plants will be blackened. 
In may catalogues I mark all plants as I receive them as follows: - 
flowers only, - — fruit only, — flowers and fruit. By marking in this way I 
can easily tell by referring to my catalogue what is needed to complete any 
Specimen, and can call for what is lacking of the first correspondent who offers 
the plant. I always make a note of the locality and date of collection of 
every plant as I find it, and when it occurs at a distance from home I place 
after the note the name of some plant which I know to be in flower at home, 
where I can see it every day, always using some plant which is just ready for 
collection for the first time during the season. For example, after Silene 
stellata I place in parenthesis (tem. Astragalus Canadensis); also for Carex 
Crawei I have (tem. C. Meadii). By making these notes I often save a long 
tramp to some fayorite’s haunt, only to find that I am either too early or too 
late.—R, I. Crarry 
_ I do not know how generally the “saddle-girth ” strap is used for obtain- 
ing pressure. It is made of two straps connected by a ring and with a ring at 
the end, the distance between 
the rings being such that 
they will just come in con- 
tact when the press is empty. 
e loose end is passed 
through both rings several 
times and then drawn tight 
and there is no slipping, and 
t 
lated nicely. Dr. P. R. Hay, 
SADDLE GIREH BIRAY- of Racine, Wis., tells me that 
he first used the principle in the botanical press. My herbarium specimens 
are kept loose in sheets which are folded at the bottom and placed in portfolio 
Covers so that they stand upright. The fold of the sheet, being at the bottom, 
Prevents the falling out of small specimens, fruits, ete., and the sheets are 
easily run oyer in the search for a particular species.—J. J. Davis. 
In the pressing and drying of many plants in the orders Lycopodiacex, 
Cyperacee, and Graminex, and many others more conspicuous for a fibrous or 
chartaceous nature, considerable time and labor may be saved by ironing them 
with 4 common flat-iron, slightly cooler than is used by a tailor. By using 
one or two thicknesses of blotting paper and a hot iron, green specimens may be 
in a few seconds, with a result equal to that obtained by any other method. 
