1895. ] Notes from My Herbarium. 493 
the petals, the umbrella-shaped top of the style with its stig- 
matic rays, and then make a cross section of the ovary and 
keep the fringe of stamens on with it. Press all these and 
either mount them on the sheet or put them in a paper 
pocket. I use both of these methods in my own herbarium. 
If the separate Mowers belong to the same plant on the sheet 
with them, I always signify the fact by writing on the pocket, 
“From this specimen.” This lends greater value to the plant 
in question. Sometimes one is obliged to take flowers from 
adjoining plants. In Sagina procumbens L., the pearlwort, 
my little press enables me to show clearly the minute petals, 
while my finest specimens of the flowers of the exquisite little 
Arenaria Groenlandica Spreng., the mountain sandwort, are 
those clapped into the baby press in a rain storm on the sum- 
mit of Mt. Monadnock, N. H. Their wetting seemed to 
give them additional freshness, and the plants were so small 
that I put them into the little press entire. 
I spent part of the summer of 1887 at York Harbor, Maine. 
My attention was naturally attracted especially to the sea- 
side plants, and none interested me more than the eel grass, 
Zostera marina L. The inlets at the mouth of the York 
river were full of it, and the surface of the water was covered 
with the long ribbon-like leaves. The inflorescence is most 
beautifully adapted to the environment of the plant in the 
water. It must be seen in the fresh state to be appreciated. 
The narrow spadix, some two inches in length, is enclosed tight- 
ly in a delicate spathe, and at the time of flowering the ovaries 
thrust their exquisitely beautiful two-forked styles between 
the clasping edges of the spathe into the water, to receive 
from some other plant the pollen which has worked its way 
out from its home to assist in the great work of propagation. 
My baby press came to my aid in showing this inflorescence 
to the best advantage. I cut off a large number of the inflo- 
rescences and pressed them in various ways, with the spathe 
enclosing the spadix or opened so as to show the flowers in 
seed. One pocket contains drawings of the inflorescence, 
others contain the specimens made in my little press, and 
others still, the fruit collected at various places. I was even 
induced in this case to put specimens of the inflorescence into 
a small bottle of alcohol, and, as I look at them now, the 
ovaries are still vainly extending their finely forked style, as 
