COLLECTING, DRYING AND MOUNTING OP SPECIMENS 191 



The Collecting, Drying and Mounting of Plant Specimens. 



BY J. LUNELL. 



Botanical manuals usually furnish ample and excellent 

 advice how to prepare plants intended for permanent preserva- 

 tion, and my only excuse for what some would consider wasting 

 printer's ink on this topic is that I wish to emphasize a few points 

 which hitherto perhaps have not attracted the widespread atten- 

 tion they no doubt deserve. 



The living , plant is directly a production of nature, but a 

 herbarium specimen is natural only in a modified form, and partly 

 an art production. It is well to look at this matter from an estheti- 

 cal point of view. Nature is always beautiful, even in disease, 

 decay and death. An art production of a plant, be it the very plant 

 or an imitation of it in clay or paint, becomes the more valuable 

 the nearer it comes to its natural living model. In order to reach 

 our goal, the end of all our efforts should therefore be to retain 

 unchanged the likeness of the living plant. Botanists with a 

 congenital sense for art as a rule produce acceptable plant specimens. 

 By care and study they will effect approach to perfection. It is 

 worth mentioning on the other hand that a not inconsiderable 

 class of botanists indulges in the cynical habit of amassing material, 

 no matter if it is good or poor, perhaps not even realizing the 

 difference in qualities; we would feel inclined to call this special 

 brand of botanists plant butchers. The large herbaria have an aim 

 to pile up rich and varying material for the furtherance of scientific 

 study, and beauty seems for the most part only to be a secondary 

 matter with them. 



Herborizing or Collecting. It is important to select beautiful 

 and well developed plants, neither too large nor too small, and by 

 all means to avoid thick and bulky material. Efforts should be 

 made to secure entire subterranean parts, shoots, etc. Some 

 writers advise the collection of three small plants or of two middle- 

 sized to make up a specimen. The correct way is, I think, to 

 collect enough for filling the sheet, but never to crowd it. The 

 number of plants is immaterial. For large herbs, shrubs and trees 

 the same rule holds. From the important parts enough is secured to 

 fill the sheet (or sheets, if necessary). The connection between a par- 

 asitical plant and its host should not be severed. Night-blooming 



