COLLECTING AND PRESSING FERNS. 25 



place these on the floor, with your ferns and blotting paper between them, and then 

 place weights on top ; or, better still, you may have a small bolt, with a T-headed nut, 

 through each corner of your boards. The blotting paper will require to be frequently 

 changed, and replaced by dry sheets, particularly at first, and it is a good plan to soak 

 your fronds for an hour or two in weak acetic acid, or strong white vinegar, after they 

 have been drying for a day or two ; as this makes them keep their natural colour better ; 

 and then continue the pressing, changing the blotting paper often, till your specimens 

 are quite dry. In changing your blotting papers, see that no edges are turned back ; 

 for it is very difficult to avoid this at first. If any are so, straighten them out ; for 

 which purpose a lady's crochet hook is a useful tool ; and with a view to this, it is not 

 desirable to press your fronds too hard at first, lest any turned edges should break off in 

 straightening, or should show a mark where they were turned back. 



It is not desirable to gather fronds that are fully ripe ; as their capsules are apt to 

 burst, and in some cases the distinftive charafter of the sori will have been partially 

 obliterated by the growth of the capsules. Small perfect fronds, too, are better than 

 pieces of larger ones ; but, of course, in the case of larger ferns it would be impossible 

 to press whole fronds ; though you may divide middling-sized fronds, and join the 

 portions together in mounting them. When your specimens are thoroughly dry and 

 firm, which, in the case of the larger kinds will be in about a month, but, of course, 

 varies somewhat according to the weather, you can place them in your herbarium, 

 mounted on sheets of cartridge drawing-paper. Label each specimen not only with its 

 name, but with the date and place at which it was obtained. This applies particularly 

 to peculiar or transitional forms, and to tree ferns, some of which, particularly Cyathea 

 Cunninghamii and Hemitelia Smithii, are not easy to distinguish when pressed and 

 dry. For your own private use, and that you may be able to thoroughly examine any 

 specimen occasionally, it is best to fasten them down merely by narrow strips of 

 gummed paper strained across them ; but if you wish them for inspe6lion of ordinary 

 and non-scientific friends, who would be likely to handle them carelessly, it is better to 

 mount them in a scrap-book. Neatness is required in doing this, and various means 

 of attaching the specimens to the leaves of the book are recommended. Gum is not 

 advisable, because it dries slowly, and when dry is so brittle that your specimens will 

 be apt to become detached, and get broken. Glue is objeftionable on account of its 

 dark colour, though the white fish-glue or gelatine is less so than the common kind, 

 and is very strong. Isinglass is also strong, but expensive. Paste of flour and water 

 with a little alum in it, is approved by some people ; but it is liable to be devoured by 

 insects ; and if, to prevent this, you add a little corrosive sublimate, it is apt to blacken 

 your specimens. Dextrine is good, but dries rather quickly. Starch is good, but has 

 the same defeft as paste. On the whole, I think isinglass or gelatine are the best of 

 the above for the purpose. A good way to go about the mounting is to spread a thin 



