80 



NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



them home, the next process con- 

 sists of drying them for the herbar- 

 ium. This is accomplished by re- 

 moving them from the papers in 

 which they have been collected, 

 and transferring them to fresh pa- 

 per. Some persons are content 

 with a stout unsized paper, such 

 as employed by grocers for wrap- 

 ping sugar, others will proceed to 

 blotting paper, whilst the majority 

 will admit that BentalPs botanical 

 paper is decidedly the best. The 

 ferns should be transferred to a 

 sheet of drying paper; two or three 

 thicknesses, or even four or five, 

 may be placed upon it, and then 

 another specimen, and thus ad libi- 

 tum. When all are in this man- 

 ner 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, or any- 

 thing applicable for the purpose. 

 Twenty-four hours at the least, and 

 forty-eight at'the most, they should 

 remain unmoved. At the expira- 

 tion of this period each specimen 

 should be transferred to a dry sheet 

 of paper, with three or four thick- 

 nesses of dry paper between each 

 specimen, and again put under 

 pressure for the same period. The 

 damp paper from which the speci- 

 mens are taken should be at once 

 dried in the sun or before the fire. 

 It is always advisable to change 

 the papers in which specimens are 

 being dried at least four times dur- 

 ing the first week; some persons 

 change them daily. After the first 

 week, if placed between Jhe folds 

 of a fresh, dry sheet of paper once 

 a week, and kept under a moder- 

 ate pressure for a month, the dry- 

 ing process ma}' be considered 

 complete. No specimen should 

 be transferred to the herbarium in 

 less than a month from the time of 

 its being collected. 



There is one small caution which 

 must not be forgotten. A speci- 

 men should never be put under 

 pressure to be dried without being 

 accompanied by a small scrap of 

 paper, on which is written the lo- 

 cality where the specimen was col- 

 lected, and the date of collection. 

 A name can be added at any time, 

 since the specimen itself will fur- 

 nish the data from whence this 

 may be determined; but it will be 

 impossible to furnish localities and 

 dates with any precision at a fu- 

 ture occasion, and upon the accur- 

 acy of these much of the value of 

 the specimen will depend. 



Before the specimen is perma- 

 nently transferred to the herbar- 

 ium, it should be poisoned, to pre- 



vent its injury or destruction by 

 mites and other predacious little 

 pests. A small quantity of finely 

 powdered corrosive sublimate — 

 about as much as will lay on a four- 

 penny piece is sufficient — should 

 be put into a bottle containing 4 

 oz. of spirits of wine, and permit- 

 ted to stand for a day or two shak- 

 ing the bottle occasionally in the 

 interim. With a small brush this 

 solution should be brushed all ov- 

 er each specimen on both surfaces, 

 and then, when thoroughly dried, 

 it may take its proper place in the 

 herbarium. 



Opinions ma}' vary as to many 

 of the minor details of a herbar- 

 ium; bnt, at the risk of not pleas- 

 ing every one, we will present a 

 scheme for the construction and 

 maintenance of a herbarium of 

 British ferns. 



The paper on which the speci- 

 mens are to be mounted should 

 not be too thin; a good cartridge 

 paper will answer every purpose. 

 The standard herbarium size is 

 about 18 by 11 inches. This is 

 as large as any one could desire. 

 Each species, at least, should have 

 the whole of a sheet devoted to it. 

 The larger ferns will require a 

 separate sheet for each variety. 

 The specimens should be laid on 

 the paper with the under or fruct- 

 ifying surface uppermost, and the 

 barren side of the frond applied to 

 the paper. Small strips of gum- 

 med paper, about an inch in 

 length, and not more than one- 

 eighth of an inch in width, should 

 be laid across the principal and 

 secondary ribs or branches of the 

 frond, and each end fastened down 

 to the sheet of paper; other pieces 

 may, in like manner, be placed 

 across the tips of the fronds, or 

 wherever else appears to be neces- 

 sary to secure the specimen to the 

 paper. It may be suggested that 

 too many such slips disfigure the 

 specimen, and if there are not 

 sufficient it cannot be retained in 

 its place. Experience must be the 

 best teacher. Some object to 

 fastening the specimens to paper 

 at all, others recommend gluing 

 them down by the whole surface. 

 Both these plans appear to us to 

 be equally objectionable. If the 

 specimens are loose, they are not 

 only in dangerFof being broken or 

 damaged, but of being misplaced 

 and dissevered from the label 

 which belongs to them. If wholly 

 glued down they cannot under 

 many circumstances be removed 

 from the paper, either to be trans- 

 ferred to other paper, or for closer 

 examination or comparison. 



Each specimen having been 

 mounted, the label which accom- 

 panies it should be fastened down 

 beside it. This may be pasted. 

 Finally, its generic and specific 

 name should be written legibly at 

 the lower /-/"-///'-hand corner. All 

 the specimens belonging to one 

 genus should then be collected to- 

 gether, and placed between the 

 folds of a sheet of paper half an 

 inch wider and longer, when fold- 

 ed, than the half-sheets upon 

 which the specimens are mounted: 

 These "genera covers" may be 

 of the same paper, or a smooth 

 brown paper may be employed for 

 the purpose. On the outside of 

 the "genera covers," at the lower 

 /(//-hand corner, the name of the 

 genus should be written in a good 

 bold hand. The whole may be 

 transferred to a deal box, the front 

 of which is movable as well as 

 the lid, being hinged to the bot- 

 tom, so as to fall down and lie flat 

 on the table. The lid may be so 

 contrived as to hold the front in 

 its place when closed. A deal box 

 9 inches deep, 13 inches wide and 

 20 inches long will hold a good 

 collection, and if this ever should 

 prove too small for the number of 

 specimens obtained, a second box 

 of the same dimensions will rem- 

 edy the evil. The order of suc- 

 cession in which the genera are 

 placed in the box may be taken 

 from this volume, which will then 

 serve as an index to the herba- 

 rium. 



If it is considered desirable, a 

 little camphor may be kept with 

 the specimens, but the best pre- 

 servative will be to look them all 

 over, and thus allow the air to 

 have access to them, once in every 

 six months. With such precau- 

 tions a collection may be pre- 

 served uninjured for years, pro- 

 vided always that it is kept in a 

 dry place — not moderately, but 

 thoroughly dry — or "mould" may 

 injure irremediably what insects 

 have spared. 



A neat little collection of ferns, 

 of smaller pretensions, and less 

 claims to be regarded in a scien- 

 tific light, may be arranged in a 

 kind of album or scrapbook, with 

 "guards" introduced by the binder 

 sufficient to compensate for the 

 extra thickness caused by the in- 

 sertion of the specimens. A tint- 

 ed paper is often used in the man- 

 ufacture of these books, which the 

 good taste of a lady may trans- 

 form into a very interesting vol- 

 ume for the drawing-room table. — 

 From Cooke's "Fern Book for 

 Everybody. ' ' 



