1952] 



PLANT HUNTING IN ECUADOR 



17 



with the fresh material before me I would add other pertinent notes, such as color 

 of the flowers, etc., etc. The newspaper with its number outside then was placed 

 on the groundo For woody materials, I always carry a pruning shears in a special 

 holster. This is then brought into play and as many specimens cut from the ma- 

 terial as needed and placed on this individual sheet; extra flowers or fruit, if 

 desirable, are then stripped from the remainder of the collection, and the residue 

 tossed out of the way. We would then go on to the next collection and repeat the 

 note-taking process and the trimming of sheet-size specimens. 



In the meantime another assistant would follow behind with a bundle of news- 

 papers and start at the first pile of specimens, already trimmed and ready for the 

 papers. These would then be placed individually in their papers, using enough to 

 clean up the pile, any odd flowers or fruit being scattered through the collection 

 or sometimes given a separate sheet of their own. The paper first placed on the 

 ground, and which bore the number of the collection, was then folded around the 

 whole set, so that the open margins of the other sheets would be closed. This 

 packet would then be laid lightly in the press, or held down merely by the weight 

 of a small stone or some other object, in case there was any breeze stirring. Ar- 

 riving at the end of the first assistant's collections, the one then putting the ma- 

 terial in press would come over and we would start out on his collections, the 

 first man working on the specimens where the other had left off. My own collec- 

 tions would be similarly cared for. In this way, in a remarkably short time, we had 

 converted the lots from raw material into specimens, already cut to herbarium 

 sheet size, and filed them in their newspapers; the field notes also had been com- 

 pleted. The individual packets of collections were then placed in press in serial 

 order, as they had been numbered, with an occasional blotter interspersed when 

 the packets became a little too thick; the blotters are not necessary, but serve to 

 keep the contents of the field presses on an "even keel" when opened at the 

 next stop. Soon we would be on our way and ready for the next collecting station, 

 where the process would be repeated. 



In this manner there was no packing of a lot of excess waste material back to 

 camp, "to be cleaned up when one has more time that night." In a well run plant 

 explorer's base camp, there isn't any extra time at night for this kind of messy 

 fumbling. Also, it is worse than foolish to trust to one's memory about the details 

 of the plants of the day and jot the notes down that night. There have been more 

 errors perpetrated by this sloppy method of assembling field notes than many are 

 willing to admit. The field notes should be taken in the field, and not jotted down 

 hours later (or sometimes hastily the next morning) after one's memory has be- 

 come hazy about certain details of height, habit, and habitat. 



Our drying stoves also were our cooking stoves. Therefore, immediately after 

 supper, the residuum of the material on the fire the night before would be sorted 

 and any completely finished pulled out of the presses. In the meantime, the ma- 

 terial which had been in press for a day, but not on the fire, was being sorted and 

 the plant materials carefully arranged on the sheets. (In the paper on artificial 

 heat, I stressed the desirability of "seasoning" the specimens for a 24 hour 

 period in blotters before putting them on the heat; this accounts for the supply of 

 plants to go on the fire being at hand soon after supper.) These "seasoned" 

 specimens, now carefully arranged, would then be placed on the fire. Then the 

 collections of the day would be tackled. 



By that time, those which had been collected earlier in the day would have 

 been somewhat * 'tamed" and ready for their preliminary arrangement on the sheets. 

 However, there was an additional chore. Before any arrangement was done, each 

 sheet would be numbered with the number on the covering slip-sheet. This is one 



