AND PRESERVING PLANTS. 
117 
them to be gathered in a moment, and prevents their being blown to 
a distance.] 
As to the spreading out of the leaves and flowers with small 
weights, penny-pieces, etc., it is quite needless. The leaves and 
flowers are best displayed by nature in the state in which you 
gather them, and they will require little or no assistance with the 
hand, when laid out upon papers, to appear to the best advantage, 
especially if put in carefully on being fresh gathered. 
If the specimens cannot be laid down immediately on being 
gathered, they should be preserved in a tin box, or, failing that, in 
a rush basket, where they will keep fresh for a clay or two, if the 
atmosphere be not very much heated. 
Some very succulent plants, such as Cacti, Semperviva, Secla, 
orchideous plants which grow on trees, etc., require to have the 
specimens plunged in boiling water for a few seconds before they are 
pressed, to destroy life and thus accelerate the process of drying. 
Plants with very fine but rigid leaves, as the Fir tribe and the 
Heaths, and some with compound winged leaves, to prevent their 
leaves falling off or their parts separating, may either be treated in 
the same manner, or dried in very hot paper or with a hot iron. 
In many cases, especially in warmer climates, the traveller will 
find the process accelerated by exposing the parcel (hung up and 
properly secured) to the open air when the weather is favourable, 
and the circulation of air through it will be promoted if the sheets 
on which the specimens are laid be placed alternately back and edge. 
In tropical countries he will find it necessary to shift his specimens 
at least once a day, and by changing them into hot paper, and 
crowding such specimens as are dry, he will be enabled to form a 
considerable collection in small compass and in a very short time. 
Four or five shiftings will generally be sufficient to complete the 
process, which is ascertained by the stiffness of the stems and leaves, 
and by the specimens not shrinking when removed. They should 
then be placed between dry papers [such as ordinary newspaper], 
and formed into parcels of moderate thickness, and either packed in 
boxes or well secured as parcels covered with oil-cloth. 
Palms, having their fructification and leaves very large, can 
hardly be subjected to pressure; a few flowers should be pressed, 
