HOR 
him appraised, he cannot justify the taking 
him to himself, at the price he was appraised 
at. And this cannot be done at any other 
place by the common law, unless there is 
some special custom. 
Horse, in naval affairs, a rope reaching 
from the middle of a yard to its extremities, 
and depending about two or three feet 
under the yard, for the sailors to tread on 
while they are loosing, reefing or furling 
the sails ; rigging out the studding sail- 
booms, &c. The same word is used for a 
thick rope extending in a perpendicular 
direction near the fore or aft-side of a mast, 
for the purpose of hoisting some yard or 
extending a sail upon it : when before the 
mast, it is used for the square sail, whose yard 
is attached to the horse by means of a 
traveller which slides up and down. When 
it is abaft the mast, it is intended for the 
try sail of a snow, but it is seldom used in 
this position except in sloops of war that 
occasionally assume the appearance of 
snows to deceive the enemy. 
Horse leach. See Hirudo. 
HORTUS siccus, a dry garden, an appel- 
lation given to a collection of specimens of 
plants, carefully dried and preserved. The 
value of such a collection is very evident, 
since a thousand minutiae may be preserved 
in the well-dried specimens of plants, which 
the most accurate engraver would have 
omitted. We shall, therefore, give some 
methods of drying and preserving an hortus 
siccus. Specimens ought to be collected 
when dry, and carried home in a tin box. 
Plants may be dried by pressing in a box of 
sand, or with a hot smoothing iron. Each 
of these has its advantages. If pressure be 
employed, a botanical press may be pro- 
cured. The press is niade of two smooth 
boards of hard wood, eighteen inches long, 
twelve broad, and two thick. Screws must 
be fixed to each corner with nuts. If a 
press cannot easily be had, books may be 
employed. Next some quires of unsized 
blotting paper must be. provided. The 
specimens, when taken out of the tin box, 
must be carefully spread on a piece of paste- 
board, covered with a single sheet of the 
paper quite dry ; then place three or four 
sheets of the same paper above the plant, to 
imbibe the moisture as it is pressed out ; it 
is then to be put into the press. As many 
plants as the press will hold may be piled 
up in this manner. At first they ought to 
be pressed gently. After being pressed for 
twenty-four hours or so, the plants ought to 
be examined, that any leaves or petals 
HOR 
which have been folded may be spread out, 
and dry sheets of paper laid over them. 
They may now be replaced in the press, 
and a greater degree of pressure applied. 
The press ought to stand near a fire, or in 
the sunshine. After remaining two days in 
this situation, they should be again examin- 
ed, and dry sheets of paper be laid over 
them. The pressure then ought to be con- 
siderably increased. After remaining three 
days longer in the press, the plants may be 
taken out, and such as are sufficiently dry 
may be put in a dry sheet of writing-paper. 
Those plants which are succulent may re- 
quire more pressure, and the blossom paper 
again renewed. Plants which dry very 
quickly, ought to be pressed with consi- 
derable force when first put into the press ; 
and if delicate, the blossom-paper should 
be changed every day. When the stem is 
woody, it may be thinned with a knife, and 
if the flower be thick or globular as the 
thistle, one side of it may be cut away ; as 
all that is necessary, in a specimen, is to 
preserve the character of the class, order, 
genus, and species. Plants may be dried in 
a box of sand in a more expeditious man- 
ner, and this method preserves the colour 
of some plants better. The specimens, 
after being pressed for ten or twelve hours, 
miyst be laid within a sheet of blossom-pa- 
pqi\ The box must contain an inch deep 
of fine dry sand, on which the sheet is to be 
placed, and then covered with sand an inch 
thick; another sheet may then be deposited 
in the same manner, and so on, till the box 
be full. The box must be placed near a 
fire for two or three days. Then the sand 
must be carefully removed, and the plants 
examined. If not sufficiently dried, they 
may again be replaced in the same manner 
for a day or two. In drying plants with a 
hot smoothing iron, they must be placed 
within several sheets of blotting paper, and 
ironed till they become sufficiently dry. 
This method answers best for drying succu- 
lent and mucilaginous plants. When pro- 
perly dried, the specimens should be placed 
in sheets of writing-paper, and may be 
slightly fastened by making the top and 
bottom of the stalk pass through a slip of 
the paper, cut nearly for the purpose. Then 
the name of the genus and species should 
be written down, the place where it was 
found, nature of the soil, and the season of 
the year. These specimens may be col- 
lected into genera, orders, and classes, and 
titled and preserved in a port-folio or cabi- 
net. Tire method of preserving many of 
