OF THE HERBARIUM. 
177 
it should be uniform in size and appearance. The kind 
that I have always used is a stout light brown material, 
much employed in packing ; it measures seventeen inches 
by twelve ; the white paper on which the specimens lie, 
measures fifteen inches by nine. This is quite the largest 
size I would recommend ; anything wider or longer than 
this becomes cumbersome and difficult to manipulate ; in 
fact, a size smaller would probably be quite as efficient. 
In any case, whatever form or size is adopted, let not the 
student, from any motives of economy, employ too cheap a 
wrapper : above all, let him avoid the thin gray and blue 
sorts, so much used on the Continent, and frequently 
imported into England with foreign herbaria. (In Germany 
it is known as' 1 Fliesspapier.’) The innumerable hollows 
arising from the inequalities of surface in cheap papers 
invite colonies of insects to take up their abode ; while, 
from their rough uneven nature, it is impossible to eject the 
1 voracious crew ’ from their head-quarters, when once they 
have established themselves. Another objection to a too 
flimsy wrapper is its great flexibility, and the consequent 
injury likely to accrue to the enclosed specimen, every time 
it is handled. 
We will now suppose the plants to be laid, each species 
by itself, on their half sheets of white paper, and these 
again slipped within the fold of their wrappers, the opening 
of the wrapper looking to the left hand. If the examples 
of any given species are numerous, representing varieties, 
abnormal forms, or growths from different localities, they 
must be laid on separate white sheets, but enclosed in a 
single wrapper. In all cases, however, the wrapper must be 
confined to one species, or section of a species, if, as is often 
the case, the latter is subdivided. This last suggestion 
must be carefully attended to ; otherwise the arrangement 
of the herbarium will be constantly interfered with ; besides, 
there is a great danger of the tickets being transposed from 
one species to another, whenever the wrapper is opened for 
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