Notes from my herbarium. IV. 
WALTER DEANE. 
My baby flower press. 
I always carry with me on my collecting trips a small press, 
consisting of two pieces of stiff card-board some six by five 
inches in size, filled with small blotters and pressing paper 
which I cut out from my large sheets used in the ordinary 
press. I use strong rubber elastics round the boards, and 
the little press can easily go into the pocket. The object of 
all this is to secure the flowers of many plants in a way almost 
impossible in the large press. It is most important for a 
well-furnished herbarium to be able to show the flower in all 
its details, that the student may have before him, spread out 
as in a printed diagram, the various partsof the flower, with- 
out resorting to boiling and dissection in order to find out 
the simplest facts as to number of stamens, position of petals, 
and the like. This my baby press enables me to do. 
I am walking along the railroad track ona sunny morning, 
and I meet a fine specimen of Lactuca leucophea Gray , a spe- 
cies of wild lettuce, its small purple heads of flowers broadly 
expanded to receive the warmth of the beautiful sun. How 
quickly those flower-heads will close and wither when the 
plant is picked! Even if put into the press on the spot, the flow- 
ers are apt to close and make a sorry show, for they are small 
and the stems of the plants prevent their receiving the needed 
pressure to keep them open. How many herbaria can show 
the open flowers of such species of the Liguliflore as Lamp- 
sana communis L., the nipple-wort, Krigia Virginica Willd., 
the dwarf dandelion, Sonchus oleraceus L., the common sow- 
thistle, and the like? This, however, can easily be done. 
When collecting the plant, pick off separate flowers and put 
them into the baby press, and, as you put the paper over 
them, hold them so that they will press wide open. Noth- 
ing is simpler. I find that there is no need of changing the 
blotters, since the flowers dry just as well without. In the 
case of such flowers as the fringed gentian, Gentiana crinita 
roel., I section the corolla and press it open. This shows 
the appendages at the sinuses, so important a character 17 
this genus. 
A complete diagram of a flower is a most interesting fea- 
ture to display, especially in the case of so curiously con- 
structed a flower as Sarracenia purpurea L., the pitcher plant- 
Remove carefully all the parts, the three bracts, the sepals, 
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