314 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



Plants may be dried and kept as patterns, and, when wanted 

 for use, will revive and swell out to their original size if immersed 

 for a short time in warm water, but petals, calyces, leaves, and 

 other parts of plants, whose outline is required for reference, 

 may be preserved in several ways. 



The easiest method is to paste [not gum) a stiff sheet of 

 notepaper or thin card, and lay the parts, right way upwards, 

 on the pasted side, pressing a sheet of blotting-paper over them, 

 the only drawback being that there is a slight shrinkage of the 

 petals, etc., when dry ; but a whole flower may be preserved by 

 snipping off the stalk close to the calyx or sepals, and with care 

 the stamens and carpels may be removed, leaving the petals, in 

 many cup- or star-shaped flowers, attached to one another. 



Another method, where the actual plant is not preserved, is 

 to trace the parts around with a fine hard pencil ; but a better 

 plan is to make a stencil of the parts by laying them down 

 upon paper, holding them firmly, and dabbing all around them 

 with any rather gummy water-colour almost dry — say one of 

 the brownish or purplish madders, — which leaves a white im- 

 pression when the flower or leaf is removed. 



The very best method, however, is to make a flower or leaf 

 print its own venations, and this reverses the preceding, for now 

 the colour is dabbed upon the part of the plant to be printed, 

 and this is then laid upon white paper, with blotting-paper over 

 it, and rubbed gently for some little time, when a print of the 

 form, of the venations, and of accidental holes will appear, and, 

 by careful arrangement, many leaves may be printed side by 

 side, giving a record of their sequence, which leaves little to be 

 desired. Oil-colours may be used instead of water-colours, 

 and are, indeed, better for this latter process, and this is practi- 

 cally the manner in which nature-printed ferns, etc., are managed. 

 For this no brush should be used, but a '' dabber " of cotton 

 wool enclosed in fine linen (" nainsook " is the best) is used 



