THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
37 
as though I had fired a load of shot through them, and then 
sometimes I find a colony of little white grubs all nicely 
gorging themselves on one of my most choice specimens. 
Haven't I fumigated them? Surely, and nearly strangled 
myself with strange and unholy fumes to which I objected 
with all my soul, but I could not see that the bugs and the 
worms did ; they even throve on it. 
But seeds are clean, and they stay clean, and they are 
beautiful to look at; even the most indifferent people admire 
them. There are those who could not be hired to read a 
page of botany in print, but they will look through the seed 
cabinet with delight. I wish I could induce you all to try 
it ; I am sure one season would convert anybody. To inter- 
est one of my friends who collects shells, ferns, algae and 
other things, and who also is a botanist, to try seeds, I 
finally, after two years of writing about it, asked her to get 
all the varieties of beans she could and put them in small 
trays, all of one size, and see if she did not admire the result. 
To please me, I suppose, she did it, and said in her next 
letter that she was adding all of the legumes, and the next 
letter it was nuts, and now I think her collecting of seeds is 
in full swing and has taken possession. Does anybody 
think she will care less for plants now than before ? 
All of the small seeds should be put into vials — or the 
naturalist's glass tubes — and those larger into pasteboard 
trays, 2x2J^x% inches deep. These trays I make myself, 
of a light quality of bristol board, covered with white paper. 
The larger seeds such as nuts and the pits of fruit go into 
thread boxes — mine are No. 40 — covered white also. As 
I have plenty of cabinet room, I have in some cases put the 
prettier seeds of medium size in both vials and trays — for 
instance Ricimis beans. As the number and name are the 
same, it does not make any difference in the catalogue, but 
is only to add to the beauty of the cabinet. I also let my- 
