a 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol, VI.— MAY, 1872.—No. 5. 
CEB OYDOD >> 
HINTS ON HERBORIZING. 
BY A. H. CURTISS. 
As there are many persons, especially in the country, who desire 
to acquire a scientific knowledge of the world of vegetation which 
Surrounds them, but who, for the lack of competent instructors, do 
not know how to commence, the following brief directions, offered 
at the commencement of the floral season, will probably prove ser- 
Viceable to many readers of the Naturarisr, and may perhaps 
afford some new ideas to experienced botanists. Any one having 
à capacity for study may learn the name and natural relationship 
of any flowering plant by an intelligent use of a good descriptive 
Work on botany—first reading, as a necessary drudgery, an ele- 
Mentary treatise on the structure of plants. But no one can be a 
good botanist without a good herbarium, which is composed of 
dried specimens of species and their various forms arranged in 
Systematic order and accurately labelled. The formation of a good 
“arium is no simple task, and desultory, unguided efforts will 
Surely be attended with much loss of time and many sources of 
scouragement. i 
Scientific characters are taken from the frpit and leaves as 
well as from the flowers, and often the roots are very impor- 
‘ant; therefore, a mere sprig of flowers does not constitute a 
botanical Specimen.” A plant not over three or four feet high. 
= Senerally be preserved entire, doubling it upon itself once 
Mice if too long for the herbarium sheet—the most approved 
2 Size of Which is eleven and a half by sixteen and a half inches — 
sensed a cording to the Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
ie in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
ER. NATURALIST, VOL. VI. 17 (257) 
