SCIENCE. 



allow you to use the blunt end of it in arranging the finer 

 details of your plant on the paper. For drying paper, of 

 course, you can use common newspapers, by putting 

 many thicknesses together ; and a great many, no doubt, 

 will do that. But sheets of blotting paper will be found 

 much more satisfactory ; twenty-five of them cut into 

 quarters. would probably be all you would use, and those 

 you could easily take in your trunks. What will be found 

 cheaper and still more serviceable, if you are going to 

 mount a large number of plants at once_ is a quantity of 

 botanist's " drying paper." It can be had of the " Natu- 

 ralists' Agency," 32 Hawley street, Boston, Mass., for, I 

 believe, $1.25 per 100 sheets ; probably also of other sellers 

 of Naturalists' supplies in all the large cities on both sides 

 of the continent. It is a coarse, spongy, brown felt paper, 

 cut into sheets 12x18 inches, and has a fine capacity for ab- 

 sorbing moisture. For convenience, the cotton cloths should 

 be made the same size as the drying paper used. Some col- 

 lectors, who dp not care to mount a great number of speci- 

 mens at once, but want to have them very smooth and fine, 

 when dry, use no drying paper at all, but in the place of 

 it, have thin smooth pieces of deal, got out a foot or so 

 square and one-quatter or one-third of an inch thick ; 

 upon these they spread one or more layers of cotton and 

 lay the plant on them and put as many more over it ; the 

 cotton absorbs the moisture and the boards keep the 

 pressure even and the papers and the plants straight and 

 smooth throughout. For " mounting paper " each one 

 must use his own taste. Many prefer cards cut of uni- 

 form size ; they can be had at almost any paper store or 

 job printing office made to order. Four and a half by 

 six and a half inches, is a neat and convenient size. But 

 if you want to mount several hundred or several thousand 

 spceimens, in the course of a season, so as to have some 

 to give to your friends, and to make up a number of books 

 or albums, to sell at Church or Charity fairs, then per- 

 haps the expense will be an item worth considering. In 

 that case you will find it cheaper to buy a few quires of 

 good 26 or 28 pound demy paper, unruled of course. The 

 paper is in unfolded sheets 16 x 21 and will cut into 

 convenient sizes "for mounting any plants ordinarily col- 

 lected. By halving it you have sheets 8 x 21, or ioj4 x 

 16 inches. By quartering, the sheets are 8 x io}4 inches ; 

 halving these you get an octavo sheet 5X x 8 inches, 

 which is quite large enough for the majority of plants. 

 One half of this wdl give a sheet 4x5^ inches which 

 will be the size most used ; while the smallest plants look 

 best on the half of these sheets, 2^ x 4 inches. 



With your large white dishes filled near to the brim 

 with sea water, or, if you are away from the ocean with 

 water made artificially salt, take a few of your plants from 

 the collecting case, and put them in one of the dishes. 

 Here, handling them with your pliers, shake them out 

 and clean them of any adhering sand or shells, trim away 

 parasites and superfluous branches and generally make 

 them ready for " floating out." Thence, transfer them 

 to the other dish. Then take your card or your paper, 

 selecting a piece large enough to give the plant ample 

 room, and leave a margin of white all around, and having 

 dipped it in the water put it quite under the floating plant, 

 holding the paper with your left hand and managing 

 it with your right. Now float the plant out over the 

 paper and draw the root or the base of it up near the end 

 of the paper next your hand, so that you can hold 

 it down on the paper with the thumb of the left hand, 

 the rest of the hand being under the paper in the water. 

 Now, slowly lift the paper up to the surface and draw it 

 out of the water in such a way that the water will flow 

 off from it in two or three directions. This will spread 

 the plant out somewhat evenly over the paper. But in 

 many cases you will need to arrange the plants in their 

 most natural and graceful position, and also take care 

 that they do not get massed upon each other, and make 

 unsightly heaps while others are left bare. They should 

 be carelully arranged so as to make the most beautiful 



picture possible. In some fine 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 paits 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 sev- 

 eral 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, in- 

 deed, 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 

 to do what they are 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 be nothing left to desire, for their color, form and 

 movement all combine there to make them the loveliest 

 and most graceful things that grow. When you have 

 put the last finishing touches upon the "floating" pro- 

 cess and your " Sea Moss " is adjusted on your paper so 

 as to be " a thing of beauty and a joy forever," then 

 you want to lay the paper upon some inclined surface — 

 any smooth board will do — to drain away the super- 

 fluous water. Thence it is to be transferred, in a few 

 moments, to the press, for drying. 



This is made in the following manner : Laying down 

 one of the above descrined sheets of blotting paper, 

 botanists' " drying paper " or boards of muslin-covered 

 deal, you lay your paper with the plaut on it upon this, 

 the plant up. Cover the board or drying paper all over 

 with " floated " specimens in the same way. Over all, 

 and lying directly upon the plants spread your piece of 

 muslin. Upon this put another sheet of the paper, or 

 board, and upon this again a layer of plants, then a 

 piece of the muslin, more paper, plants, muslin, and so 

 on until you have disposed of all vour collection, or so 

 much of it as you care to mount. Upon the last layer of 

 plants put a final sheet of paper, and over all a stout 

 board as large as the drying paper. Upon this lay some 

 heavy weights — stones will be as handy as anything at 

 the seaside. I should put on, I think, about fifty pounds 

 of them if I were using botanist's drying paper, which 

 has a good deal of give in it. With the use of boards, 

 unless there are a good many thicknesses of muslin, it 

 would not do to weight it so heavily, cr some of the 

 plants would be crushed beyond recognition. I use the 

 drying paper and always have two boards, one for the 

 bottom and one for the top of my press. Then when I 

 have made the pile complete, I can put it aside in some 

 convenient corner out of the way, and set the stones to 

 work bearing down upon it, a business for which they 

 seem to have some conspicuous and weighty gifts. 



Some botanists recommend that the drying paper be 

 removed in the course of five or six hours, and the 

 cloths and papers again in twenty-four hours. This will, 

 perhaps, be the best if anyone has plenty of time. But 

 my practice has always been to let them lie twenty-four 

 hours and then give them a change of both cloths and 

 papers, being careful in removing the cloths so as not to 

 lift the plants from the mounting paper. 



The second time in the press they should be subject to 

 a harder pressure, seventy-five or one hundred pounds 

 of stone being not too much. In twenty-four hours more 

 most of them will be quite dry and ready to be put into 

 your herbarium, album, or whatever you use for the 

 final disposition of them. Those that are not perfectly 

 dry should be put back in the press with dry papers and 

 cloths for another day's stay. 



