PREFACE. 
-vi 
position, or true relation to each other. In the other 
case, he is careless about the preservation of the plant, 
and neglects the commonest rules, whereby alone it 
can be saved from speedy destruction. The result, in 
both cases, is the same. His preparations are un- 
trustworthy and well nigh useless — at any rate, can 
lay no claim to any scientific value. 
The lower Cryptogamia especially, such as the 
Algae and Fungi, require a somewhat complicated 
mode of treatment : so much so, indeed, that many a 
beginner is frightened from prosecuting his studies, 
disgusted by the continued failures, which, without 
a guide to lead him, it was next to impossible for 
him to escape. And yet so full of beauty and in- 
terest are these lowly orders — enchaining the mind 
and arresting the attention of all, who are deeply 
engaged in their study, that it seems hard, that any 
should be debarred from the enjoyment of so much 
pleasure by mere mechanical difficulties, which, after 
all, may be easily removed. 
As cases of this kind have frequently come under 
my own observation, I have prepared the following 
pages with a view to place near the novice in botany 
an adviser, who may offer him, in a condensed form, 
some useful suggestions respecting the best methods 
of collecting and preparing plants for the Herbarium. 
I have done this without the intention, or even the 
idea, of offering to the public anything essentially 
new, or better than what has been already published ; 
