MOSSES AND LICHENS. 231 



you do it — squeeze them well (they are very elastic and 

 come all right however roughly you handle them); then 

 pick out such pieces as you wish to preserve, press the 

 moisture from them with rag or blotting paper, old 

 towel or any soft thing of the kind, and when pretty 

 well dried, with a small brush and & little paste arrange 

 them in a blank book or album of good stout paper. 

 Always obtain the seed vessels, if possible, as it is by 

 this particular organ of fructification that the family 

 and different species are recognized. 



A well-arranged book of mosses becomes a charming 

 thing to inspect, and if the collector is fortunate in 

 having a friend who is a botanist and who will help 

 him to name his specimens, he will have a treasure-book 

 of very lovely objects to remind him of pleasant times 

 spent in forest, swamp or field — a memento of wayside 

 wanderings of days gone by, when the discovery of some 

 new plant or moss or lichen was a source of pure and 

 innocent delight, unalloyed by the experiences and cares 

 of after-life among his f ellowmen in the hurry and 

 strife of the busy world. 



