By Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq. 



235 



no additional light on the subjects, for the elucidation of which 

 they are to be preserved. It would also be desirable to endeavour 

 to make a specimen serve two or more purposes. For instance, 

 say that you require specimens in three stages of growth, it may 

 occasionally be managed to make these three specimens also illus- 

 trate three localities or sections of the county. 



Fifthly, Useful directions for the collecting and drying of plants 

 having been printed in " Balfour's Class Book of Botany," it is 

 only necessary here to refer botanists to that work for ample in- 

 structions on those processes, unless it be added that nothing 

 perhaps conduces so much to the beauty and good preservation of 

 specimens, as the employment of an ample stock of paper. The 

 paper used for the process of drying plants should be moderately 

 absorbent, so as to take up the moisture of the plants, and at the 

 same time to dry rapidly after being used. That which is gener- 

 ally employed is Bentall's, and is the best paper now made in 

 England. 1 The size recommended is eighteen inches long, by eleven 

 broad. If the paper be sufficiently porous for rapidly absorbing 

 the moisture of the plants, and sufficient in quantity for preventing 

 the dampness of one layer of them from extending to others, it 

 will commonly be found the best practice not to change the papers 

 until the specimens have become so dry as no longer to require 

 the pressure of weights on the boards. 



Frequent changing of paper and the application of artificial heat 

 may prove needful in drying very succulent plants, but with plenty of 

 paper these processes may safely be looked upon as an unnecessary 

 waste of time, and they are often more injurious than beneficial to 

 the specimens themselves. In addition to the dried specimens for 

 fastening on paper, contributors are particularly requested to send 

 also small packets of the seeds of local and rare plants, when 

 opportunities occur for obtaining them ; seeds often affording clear 

 characters for the discrimination of genera and species. 



Lastly. It is trusted that the Contributors to the Herbarium will 

 find a recompense for their exertions in the gratification of learning 



1 Bentall's " Botanical Drying Paper" can be obtained from the Agent, Mr. 

 Edward Newman, 9, Devonshire Street, Bishopsgate, London. 



VOL. X. — NO. XXX. R 



