INTRODUCTION. 9 



thus found their way to this country, where 

 they fortunately came under the notice of skilful 

 and cultivated minds, by whom the art of 

 producing them has been so patiently and 

 successfully pursued, that the specimens now 

 produced in this country surpass, in richness, 

 .brilliancy, and faultless nicety of preparation 

 and arrangement, all that have been prepared 

 in foreign lands. 



A recent English critic, in commenting on the 

 progress of. the art, avers that leaf bleaching has 

 been known traditionally from time immemorial, 

 in Europe and Asia, by those families in which 

 botanical tastes have been hereditary. In Great 

 Britain and on the Continent, as well as in this 

 country, he says that among the quaint old curi- 

 osities to be found in the houses of retired sea- 

 captains, specimens of skeleton leaves are to be 

 found, covered with such pictures as only a 

 Chinese artist could execute. The process has 

 been described in London publications of the 

 seventeenth century, and was probably intro- 

 duced into England from Italy during the reign 



