1895.] Notes from My Herbarium, 15 
half feet high, with leaves seven inches long. The other 
specimens of this species in my herbarium are of the average 
size, from one and one-half to two feet high, with leaves 
about four inches long. Twenty shoots, from fifteen inches 
to less in length, branch off from the three stocks. All this 
tangle of rootstock I have mounted on one sheet, with about 
three inches of the stems of the three plants, mounting on a 
separate sheet the flowering specimen which I retained. 
TARAXACUM OFFICINALE Weber. Common dandelion. 
I have succeeded in mounting a specimen of our common 
dandelion with the large head of fruit intact. I did it in this 
way. I collected the specimen the moment the fruit had 
opened, and while the akenes were still firmly attached to 
the receptacle. In this condition I pressed it. By the time 
the plant was dry, I noticed that the akenes were free from 
the receptacle, but ‘still in position. I always transfer all my 
plants too flimsy to handle to the mounting sheet or pasting 
sheet of blotting paper by reversing the plant with a sheet 
on each side. This saves much trouble, and the most deli- 
cate plants can in this way be very quickly handled and 
mounted. In the case of my taraxacum, however, I could 
not touch the pasting brush to the pappus on the fruit, as it 
would stick to it and spoil my specimen. So when the plant 
was on the mounting sheet unpasted, I made a few points 
with a pencil close to the edge of the pappus. Then, after 
transferring the plant to the pasting sheet, I pasted all the 
plant but the fruit, and, on the mounting sheet, I pasted the 
Space between the points. By careful reversal of the plant 
again, the fruit fitted exactly on the former spot, where the 
glue received it and held it fast. A few blotters and a proper 
weight, laid onthe sheet for a few hours, completed the work. 
Cambridge, Mass. 
