INTRODUCTION. 23 



picture possible. In some line and delicate plants, 

 too much care cannot be bestowed in having the 

 remote branchlets all naturally disposed and spread 

 out. This final work of arranging details, you will 

 do with your needle while you hold the paper very 

 near to the surface of the water with your left hand, 

 so near, indeed, that there will be just water enough 

 and no more, above it, to float the delicate parts 

 which you are manipulating. Oftentimes it will be 

 found convenient, after the paper with the plant on 

 it has been removed from the water, to re-immerse 

 a part of it at a time, and re-arrange the several parts 

 separately. But all this can easily be done, more 

 easily than I can tell how to do it. A very little 

 practice will give you the " knack " perfectly. And, 

 indeed, these plants are by no means refractory, or 

 hard to manage. They will do anything you can 

 reasonably want them to, while you humor them by 

 keeping them in their native element. In fact, you 

 will commonly need to do no more with them than 

 to just help them do what they are altogether willing 

 and disposed to do themselves. For if you will let 

 them take on your paper the form and outline, 

 which they have by nature in the water, there will 

 nothing left to desire, for their color, form, and 

 movement, all combine there, to make them the loveliest 



