GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS IN PLANT-MODELLING 313 



and the operation more successful. The mould must be quite warm, 

 or the seams, showing where all the streams of the liquid wax meet on 

 it, will be visible. 



It is a rare thing to get a good impression the first time. Small 

 moulds may be dipped into the wax, but with larger leaves it would 

 require a large vessel and so much wax as to make it scarcely worth 

 while. 



Nothing remains but the colouring, and, as this varies in 

 each species, and often in each leaf, no general details can be 

 given, but, under the heading of some of the species described 

 hereafter, special directions will be found. 



A clean and light hand is, it need hardly be stated, of the 

 utmost importance even in leaf-modelling, but in the making 

 of iiowers it is a sine qud non. It may also be as well 

 to mention that no one, unless a past master of the art of 

 taxidermy, should attempt to embellish his work with modelled 

 foliage, or it may be that one bad piece of work will be supple- 

 mented by another. 



Perhaps, however, a worse condition of matters than even 

 that is to be seen in the Government Museums of Britain 

 and America, where, in many instances, the birds are un- 

 scientifically and awkwardly mounted, and surrounded by 

 exquisitely modelled foliage, which is far worse than if birds 

 and foliage both exhibited the same degree of positive badness 

 or mediocrity. 



General Instructions 



In all cases, where practicable, the plant to be modelled from 

 should be dug up, placed in a pot of soil, and kept moist, or in 

 a vessel of water, whilst being copied. This, with the one 

 destroyed in making the moulds of the leaves and pasting 

 down the flowers for patterns, necessitates the procuring of two 

 specimens of the same plant. For temporary preservation ot 

 plants — most useful in many instances — see Formula S o (p. S 8). 



