94 THE COLLECTING AND DRYING OF PLANTS 
for the bottom of each mass of papers. Pieces of millboard 
placed between the papers, if the specimens are numerous 
or particularly thick or woody, are very useful. For pressure 
nothing is better than a heavy weight on the topmost board, 
or, while travelling, two leathern straps and buckles to bind the 
boards and papers transversely. Thus provided, gather your 
specimens — if small, root and stem ; if large, cut off portions 
of the branches, a foot or rather more in length, always selecting 
those in flower and in more or less advanced state of fruit. 
Long, slender plants, as grasses, sedges, and many ferns, may 
be doubled once or twice. Place them, before they wither, 
side by side, but never one upon the other on the same sheet, 
taking care that the thick parts of the specimens are, as far as 
possible, distributed to different parts of the sheet, and lay 
over the specimens one, two, three or more sheets of paper, 
according to its thickness or the thickness of your plants ; and 
so on, layer above layer of paper and specimens, subjecting 
them to pressure. In a day or two, according to the more or 
less succulent nature of the plants, or to the nature of the 
climate, remove them successively into fresh papers till the 
moisture is absorbed, and dry the spare papers in the sun or 
by a fire for future use. 
‘ Circumstances permitting, succulent plants should be placed 
in a separate press, otherwise the complete drying of others 
is retarded. When practicable, very delicate flowers should 
be separately dried and preserved in blotting or other soft 
paper and subsequently added to the specimen of the rest 
of the plant. 
‘ When sufficiently dry, the specimens should be put into 
papers, one sheet (more if the specimens be thick) between each 
layer of plants ; and thus a great many may be safely arranged 
in a small compass, and are ready for transport covered with 
oilcloth or packed in boxes. Mosses and other cryptogamic 
plants may be generally dried in the common way, those 
which grow in tufts being previously opened out, so as to form 
neat specimens. Most seaweeds require a slight washing in 
fresh water, and the more delicate kinds should be floated 
out on sheets of writing paper before being subjected to 
pressure.’ 
