BULLETIN 39, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [10] 



DRIERS. 



The ideal driers are made of blotting paper cut into sheets 12 inches 

 wide and 18 inches long, but as these are expensive it is best to employ 

 the driers sold regularly by dealers in botanical material. These are 

 made by cutting to the requsite size the paper used to put under car- 

 pets. This paper is thick, felt-like, and very bibulous and perfectly 

 satisfactory for all purposes. If this can not be obtained, the common 

 coarse brown wrapping paper will answer very well, and even old news- 

 papers may be used if nothing better can be had. The only thing 

 is to have papers that will readily take up moisture and as readily part 

 with it. 



THIN PAPERS. 



The so-called thin papers are the papers between which the plants are 

 placed while they are undergoing the process of dying. They should 

 be cut to the same size as the driers and may be either half or double 

 sheets; that is, a single sheet 12 by 18 inches or a sheet 24 by 18 inches 

 folded through the middle so as to produce the required size. These 

 papers should be thin but strong, and unglazed. The grocers' tea paper, 

 as it is called, which may be obtained of any grocer or paper dealer, is 

 the best. Old newspapers, however, may be substituted if the other 

 can not be obtained. As these thin papers may be used over and over 

 again it is only necessary to be provided with as many sheets as there 

 are driers,' or if single sheets are used, with twice as many. 



PAPERS FOR THE DRIED PLANTS. 



• 



Many good collectors use the double sheets of thin paper mentioned 

 above and allow the plants to remain in them after they are dry, and if 

 the supply of thin papers is sufficient this may be a good plan, but 

 usually they are taken out of the thin papers and put into thicker 

 papers, or old newspapers cut to the requisite size. The plants as soon 

 as thoroughly dry can be made up into packages of convenient size, 

 and the collector should always be provided with some means of so 

 caring for them, as otherwise the full capacity of the collecting outfit 

 may be impaired by using the thin papers or driers for this purpose. 



NOTE BOOK. 



Lastly, the collector should always be provided with a note book of 

 convenient size, in which everything of interest relating to the plants 

 or their habitat should be recorded. It is best to have it of uncalen- 

 dered paper,. for the reason that it is often desirable to make sketches, 

 which can not be so well made on a smooth surface. " It should have 

 strong but light flexible covers, and be of such a form as to be readily 

 carried in the coat pocket, and in it there should be a place for one or 

 more pencils and the field labels." (Bailey.) 



