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10 



prepared liquid glue, which is quite satisfactory. It may be 

 bought at any hardware store. In mounting plants by the 

 new method, all that one needs besides the glue is a stock of 

 driers, some collecting sheets and a sponge. After the label 

 has been pasted upon the sheet to be used in mounting, the 

 operation proceeds as follows : Having spread a little of the 

 glue very thinly on a piece of paste-board or old newspaper, 

 two driers are laid upon the table and on them the mounting 

 sheet. The plant is laid down in the glue and at once taken 

 up and transferred to the mounting sheet. It is then covered 

 with a sheet of thin white paper, such as a collecting sheet, 

 two more driers are put upon it and it is finished. The opera- 

 tion is repeated with other plants, which are piled up one 

 above another with driers between as in pressing plants. 

 When about six plants have been treated thus, the pile is put 

 under about twenty pounds pressure while another half-dozen 

 are beir.g mounted. After this the thin sheets covering the 

 first mounted specimci s re turned over, to prevent any glue 

 which may have got on the upper surface of the plant from 

 sticking them together. The pile may then be set away under 

 piessure for a day or two for the glue to dry. 



A few minutes' practice will enable any one to satisfac- 

 torily mount plants in this manner. Two hundred plants in 

 seven hours is a fair average. If the glue is too thick, it may 

 be thinned with a little vinegar. It is not intended that every 

 part of the under surface shall be covered with glue. On the 

 contrary, if a plant is laid loosely on the sheet, it will be seen 

 Lhat it touches it at comparatively few points. If these are 

 covered with glue, it will be sufficient. Heavy stems should, 

 of course, have the greatest amount of glue. If the plant takes 

 up too much glue when dipped intO' it, the excess may be 

 taken off by laying the plant with glued side down on a piece 

 of newspaper. Repeat this until enough has been removed. 

 The sponge is kept wet, near at hand, for taking glue from 

 the operator's fingers and from the upper surface of the plants. 



The plants should be mounted with their heavy stems as 

 nearly as possible parallel with the long diameter of the 

 mounting sheet. Two different species should never be 

 mounted on the same sheet, nor two plants collected at dif- 

 ferent times, although several plants collected at one time may 



