36 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
in a cake is a seed ; it is a whole or half fruit containing the 
seed. 
It follows from what has now been said, that Umbellifers 
must be collected in full mature fruit. Thus only can they 
be identified. Never send them to a botanist to name in flower 
only. He can legitimately decline to be perplexed w^ith puzzles 
and the whole profession will sustain him. 
Brown University, Providence, R. 1. 
ABOUT COLLECTING. 
BY M. F. BRADSHAW. 
IS there a growing sentiment against collecting? I am 
not sure, yet there comes a faint recollection of some- 
one scoring mildly the naturalist who collects things. Was 
it in the pages of our own Botanist^ or have I heard it 
elsewhere? To be a collector, only, is a small sort of busi- 
ness to be sure, but then it is better than not to be interested 
in nature at all. One cannot get together a lot of things 
without knowing something about them, and if one is a 
student in the real sense of the term, how can he remember 
all he observes in all the objects he studies? Make notes? 
To be sure, yet in time what a volume of manuscript to 
look over whenever he fails to recall some particular feature 
or when he wants to make comparisons. How much easier, 
quicker, more accurate to turn to the collection. 
All of which assures you that I believe in and make 
collections. In Botany, my herbarium has been of great 
value where the species of some genera are so alike, it is 
hard to tell which is which of some such weeds as the 
Chenopodiums or the Franserias or Baccharis. Only spread- 
ing them out side by side and carefully comparing them 
will serve to give a clear idea of their differences. But the 
collection that gives me the most pleasure is the seeds. 
Herbariums harbor bugs that riddle the cardboard sheets 
