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CHAPTER VI. 



ON THE COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 



In some of our earlier jottings we promised at a future day to give 

 instructions for the collection and preservation of natural produc- 

 tions, and we think it not inappropriate to devote one short chapter 

 to that purpose, more particularly as a museum having "been estab- 

 lished by the Government of this country it is absolutely necessary, 

 in order that it should attain any degree of utility, that every one 

 should co-operate in furnishing materials. There is nothing so inte- 

 resting as a really good collection of the indigenous birds, fishes, plants, 

 etc. of a new country ; and we sincerely trust that every one who has 

 the progress of natural science at heart will give a helping hand to 

 this valuable institution. For collecting plants we have found 

 nothing necessary besides a 6mall spade, made of steel and iron, 

 for obtaining the specimen entire, and a light portfolio with leather 

 straps (which may be carried as a knapsack), filled with coarse 

 unsized paper, in which to put the plants as they are gathered. 



On arriving home the collector should at once make any exami- 

 nation he may think necessary while the specimen is fresh, making 

 notes of any peculiarity which may exist — the habitat, time of 

 flowering, and so on — in a note-book, which he should always have 

 with him. (We make a rule never to trust to memory). He may 

 then, after selecting good and perfect specimens, choosing those in 

 seed where practicable, arrange them carefully and naturally 

 between sheets of coarse paper — newspapers answer the purpose 

 remarkably well, — laying several dry sheets between each specimen 

 as it is more or less succulent. We seldom find it necessary to 

 change the papers (as nearly all botanists recommend), if placed 

 in a dry, warm situation, with a slight pressure; nor do we approve 

 of the plants being overpressed, as is too frequently the case, ren- 

 dering it impossible to examine them at any subsequent period. 



