62 



A METHOD OF MAKING LEAF PRINTS 



By Edward W. Berry 



The following method of making prints of leaves while not 

 new has much to recommend it and seems worthy of having 

 attention called to it in print. It has proven by far the most 

 satisfactory which I have utilized during a life-long interest in 

 leaf study. I do not know the original discoverer, nor does it 

 matter particularly. The process was described in the Scientific 

 American a decade ago and more recently Julia E. Rogers* in 

 "A New Method of Knowing our Tree Neighbors" gives an 

 illustrated account of how it is done, crediting her information 

 to W. W. Gillette, of Richmond, Virginia. The process was 

 deemed of sufficient utility to form the subject of one of the 

 Cornell Home Nature Study leaflets some years ago and finally 

 it has been utilized abroad for a number of years for the purpose 

 of furnishing cheap and accurate reproductions in paleobotanical 

 works of existing leaves with which the fossil leaf species were 

 compared. 



The necessary outfit is cheap and simple and consists of a 

 small quantity of printers' ink, a smooth surface eight to ten 

 inches square on which to distribute it, a piece of glass or slate 

 will answer, or a stone slab can be purchased from any printers' 

 supply house for a small sum. Two rollers are needed — one 

 an inking roller such as is used by printers in "pulling" small 

 proofs. This is known technically as a "brayer" and various 

 sizes can be purchased at prices ranging from fifty cents upward. 

 I find that a fifty-cent one answers my purposes very well. The 

 other roller is one such as is used in photographic work either of 

 rubber or faced with rubber and costing from thirty-five cents 

 upward. A small bottle of benzine for cleaning purposes is also 

 useful. The process is as follows: A small quantity of ink, a 

 teaspoonful or less, is placed on the slab and rolled to a thin film 

 with the proof roller. Then the leaf is laid on the slab and care- 

 fully rolled with the same roller until a thin film of the ink 

 uniformly coats both sides. The leaf is then placed between 



* Country Life in America i8: 66, 88. 1910. 



