DIRECTIONS FOB DBTCKG and PRB8BRVHTG PLANTS, xi 



PBE88R& 



1. 'I'lu- press already described, consisting of two pieces of boards <»f the 

 si/..- of the driers, with a stone or any convenient heavy body for a weight, 

 is the mosl simple. 



2, A press With a screw tO apply force is in common use, and has its 



advantages on accounl of its completeness. 



;:. Two pieces of binder's boards, with muslin glned <>n them and the 



whole varnished with shellac varnish, and fastened together with straps, 

 are sometimes hs.i1, and are convenient, becanse they are Ugh1 and may 



be carried into the field. 



4. Messrs. Barnes A Co., of New York City, keep for sale a complete 

 apparatus for collecting and drying. Their press has sides of wire gauze, 

 which possesses the advantage of allowing drying to go on more freely 

 than any other press. Prof. Wood is the inventor of this press. 



Size of Plants. 



Wh.n a plant is too large to lay upon the paper, it may be bent, but in 

 •• should it be cut. Of large plants, such as shrubs and trees, a 

 branch may be obtained containing good specimens of leaves, Mowers, and 

 if possible. In collecting herbaceous plants, those of medium size 

 should be obtained. The author has been in the habit of collecting, so 

 far as practicable, all the forms of a plant, from the overgrown speci- 

 men to the dwarf. 



Presbhvtng Plants. 



Having dried and labeled a number of plants, white paper of a fair 



Substance may be obtained and cut to the size of the driers ; then the 



mens may be fastened to the sheets in any of the following ways. 



They may be stitched on with cotton thread, or a little glue may be 



touched to the leaves, and parts of the stem, and thus fastened to the 



paper. A very neat way of doing it is to dissolve (ium Arabic to the con- 



v of cream, and put into a gill of the solution a lump of rock-candy 



_•• as a hickory-nut. When the whole is perfectly dissolved, spread 



it with a camel's-hair brush over common writing paper {ha/ring firM laid 



the pnper tmooUdff OH and allow it to dry. Continue to put on 



coat after coat, until it presents a Bmooth, glossy surface ; when dry, it is 



fit for r having placed the plant as it is to lie on the paper, cut 



into narrow strips the gammed paper, and after wetting it in your mouth, 



lay it across the stem and parts that yon wish t<> secure to the paper. 



The label may be written upon this gammed paper, and laid over some part 



of the stem, and will aid in holding the plant to the paper ; in tl. 



two b] ihoold be preserved so as to show both sides of the leaf. 



To preserve specimens from the depredations of satu- 



I ' solution Of . in fourth proof alcohol, then add an 



equal bulk of water, and with this solution wet the parts of the plants 

 attacked. 



