368 Introduction to Botany. 



235. Collecting and preparing Materials. — In collecting materials 

 for the herbarium, a tin collecting box is very useful, since in it speci- 

 mens may be kept in a fresh condition for two days or longer. The col- 

 lecting boxes can be obtained from the dealers in botanical supplies, or 

 they may be made of the following dimensions at the tinner's : Length 

 17 inches ; diameters of ends, which are oval, 4 by 6 inches ; on one of 

 the broad sides there should be a hinged lid, 41 by 15 inches, fastening 

 with a spring catch ; rings should be soldered on near the ends, to 

 which a strap could be fastened for suspending the case over the 

 shoulders. It is well to coat the case, inside and out, with paint or 

 Japan varnish. For digging up plants, a strong garden trowel or weed 

 digger is very serviceable. 



To prepare the specimens for the herbarium they should be spread out 

 between two sheets of thin porous paper 11^ inches wide by 16} inches 

 long, called specimen sheets, taking care that the parts overlap each other 

 as little as possible, and that the leaves are not crumpled, and then the 

 specimen sheets should be placed between two or more sheets of thick 

 carpet or blotting paper, termed driers. Specimens thus prepared may 

 be stacked one above another to the depth of a foot or so, a flat board 

 being placed on top of the pile, and on the board rocks or other 

 weights amounting to 40 or 50 pounds. If the objects are too long 

 for the specimen sheets, they may be bent once or even twice like the 

 letter N. Thick stems, tubers, etc., should be pared down to requisite 

 thinness, but so as to preserve their form. 



The damp driers should be replaced by dry ones every day for about 

 a week, or until the specimens appear quite dry. The damp driers 

 should be spread out in the sun or hung about a stove, and it were 

 better in changing the driers to put on the fresh ones while they are still 

 warm from this treatment. Some plants with mucilaginous juices, such 

 as the spiderworts, dry very slowly and are apt to discolor badly. This 

 can be obviated to a certain extent by ironing them with hot irons 

 while lying between the specimen sheets. Very fleshy plants such as 

 the cacti should be slit open longitudinally and the pulp scraped out be- 

 fore placing them in the press. The heads of composite flowers whose 

 ray florets would not otherwise come under pressure in the press should 

 have rings of cotton placed around them to obviate this difficulty. If 

 parts of plants must necessarily overlajD in the press, pieces of porous 

 paper should be placed between them. 



When dry the specimens are to be glued, with a good quality of pre- 



