PERN ALLIES OF NEW ZEALAND. Ill 



■when full sized, do not exceed the size of the paper, should be 

 gathered whole, their roots cleaned from soil and thinned down with 

 the knife if necessary, on what is intended to be the underside of the 

 specimen, and all unnecessary fronds removed. Larger species may 

 be taken in two portions, while of the very large species usually only 

 separate pinnae can be dried. As, however, the stipes and its mode 

 of attachment to the rhizome, and the rhizome itself, constitute 

 important characters in classification, care should be taken to show 

 these as far as possible. If the collector happen to be out without a 

 book, but is furnished with a vasculum, he can usually bring his 

 ferns home in very good order by laying them carefully in the box 

 and sprinkling a little water over them. The air in the close space 

 becomes saturated with aqueous vapour, and the fronds — even of 

 •delicate species — will be found to retain most of their freshness. 

 Most of the genus Hymeiiophyllum, and Trichomanes can even thus 

 Tdo carried for two or three days, but I have always failed with the 

 Todeas. These should be pressed as soon as gathered, as their 

 •delicate segments curl up in the most aggravating manner, and 

 -afterwards refuse to be flattened. 



As a rule, the pressure exercised by the straps will be found 

 sufficient for the ferns while drying, but a few heavy books, or 

 similarly weighty things, may be added if necessary. The plan 

 a,dopted by some persons of putting their plants into a copying- 

 press cannot be recommended ; too much pressure destroys the 

 "beauty of some species. 



Within about twenty-four hours of gathering, or as soon after as 

 possible, the papers should be changed for fresh ones, and this 

 process repeated again at intervals of every two or three days. The 

 thinner ferns will be quite dry in ten days or a fortnight, while the 

 more coriaceous forms may be aided by a hot pressing with a 

 -common iron between sheets of blotting paper. Some species — such 

 ^s the varieties of Asplenium ohtusatum, and Polypodium, serpens — 

 require a long time and a considerable pressure to dry them 

 thoroughly, and are all the better for an occasional hot press. The 

 •mode adopted by collectors, of killing many tough or succulent plants 

 by plunging them in boiling water before drying, cannot be employed 

 with ferns, as the sori are thus more or less destroyed. 



