HOW TO l^OBM A HERBARIUM, 



23 



such specimens as will lie comfortably between tbe papers 

 without bending, than to aim at procuring^^^e specimens 

 which may only prove to be a nuisance. A perfect frond 

 of 9 inches in length is better than a folded or otherwise" 

 mutilated one of 19 inches. In selecting fronds, the fruit 

 should not be too ripe, or instead of spores you will only 

 find empty cases, not to mention the rusty dust that will 

 continually tint your papers. It is better that the spores 

 should be scarcely matured. Then, again, it should be 

 noticed whether the frond is eaten by insects, broken, or 

 in any other way imperfect. Such specimens are to be 

 avoided if others can be obtained. Tinally, the specimen 

 selected should be well grown, and not distorted, unsym- 

 metrical, or exhibit a tendency to sporting or departure 

 from the general type of the neighbouring fronds. 



Having collected what specimens are required and con- 

 veyed them home, the next process consists of drying them 

 for the herbarium. This is accomplished by removing 

 them from the papers in which they have been collected, 

 and transferring them to fresh paper. Some persons are 

 content with a stout unsized paper, such as employed by 

 grocers for wrapping sugar, others will proceed to blotting 

 paper, whilst the majority will admit that BentaU's bo- 

 tanical paper is decidedly the best. The ferns should be 

 transferred to a sheet of drying paper ; two or three thick- 

 nesses, or even four or five, may be placed upon it, and 

 then another specimen, and thus ad libitum. AVhen all 

 are in this manner transferred, the pile should be placed 

 in a press, or with a stout board above and below, loaded 

 on the top with some heavy weights, stones, bricks, old 

 books, OP anything applicable for the purpose. Twenty- 

 four hours at the least, and forty-eight at the most, they 

 should remain unmoved. At the expiration of this period 

 each specimen should be transferred to a dry sheet of 

 paper, with three or four thicknesses of dry paper be- 

 tween each specimen, and again put under pressure for 

 the same period. The damp paper from which the spe- 

 cimens are taken should be at once dried in the sun or 

 before the f^re. It is always advisable to change the 



