74 

 HERBARIUM NOTES* 



By Paul C. Standley 



In mounting a considerable number of plants recently the 

 writer had occasion to notice a number of common defects in 

 labels and in herbarium specimens — defects which could easily 

 be remedied by a little care and forethought on the part of the 

 collector ; some of these are discussed in the following notes. 



Labels should never be printed on stiff -paper. Such paper is 

 certain to curl up at the corners and edges unless it is kept under 

 pressure until dry. True, if the corners do curl at first they are 

 usually flat on the sheet after they are thoroughly dry, but they 

 will always be loose and likely to be torn or still further loosened 

 if anything happens to catch on them. It is preferable to use 

 paper that is thin and will not curl away from the sheets when it 

 is wet. 



The size, too, deserves consideration. The largest labels that 

 I have seen are about 2^ by 5^ inches and some of the speci- 

 mens which they accompanied had 

 ^^^..*- to be broken to keep them from 



''^^^''*''*==^ covering parts of the labels. Such 



^v pieces of paper require too much 



pzr^r;^ '' A ^ A time for pasting on the sheet and 

 r~~" ^^^3r~!^n V y ^^^ ^^^ necessary if the labels are 



filled in by hand, no matter how 

 large a hand the collector may write, and are still less necessary 

 when all the data are printed in. The size most generally used 

 seems to be about 4}^ by 2^ inches. 



While neatness of labels is always desirable, other ornamenta- 

 tion than the necessary wording is superfluous. This applies to 

 ornamental borders and all advertising of the scenic attractions 

 of the locality in which the plants were collected. 



The type used should be plain. The most conspicuous parts 

 of the label should be the name of the state in which the collection 

 was made and the name of the plant. These things are not of 

 so much importance in a small herbarium but when working with 



■^Illustrated with the aid of the Catherine McManes fund. 



