284 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
that situation I attribute to the straw coverings that were put over the trees in 
February, I took up tw r o of the plants and divided the roots; the first gave ine 
forty-eight plants, and the second fifty. These I planted in another part of the 
garden, and from No. 1, I procured one hundred and one straws, and two thou¬ 
sand one hundred grains of good corn, and from No. 2, I had ninety-nine straws 
and two thousand five hundred and ten grains of wheat; many of the ears of 
No. 2 were better ripened than those of No. 1. No. 3 remained in its original 
situation without any transplanting, and produced in due season sixty-eight 
shares, and one thousand nine hundred and ninety grains. Thus for three 
grains I have procured six thousand six hundred of as good a sample as can be 
seen, besides many inferior ones that I threw away, and not a few good ones that 
the birds took as they were getting ripe. You are at liberty to make what 
use you please of these few lines. I congratulate you on the improvement 
which your Register has exhibited since its first appearance. E. W. N. 
Taking Impressions of Plants with Printers Ink. —In answer to the 
inquiries of your correspondent “ H. C.” page 90, volume 2, respecting taking 
impressions of leaves on paper, I beg to state a method I practised some years 
ago with success. I laid the leaf or the whole plant on a board, in the form in 
which I wished to take the impression; after flattening it down with my hand, I 
took two printing balls, with which I distributed a small quantity of ink, and 
beat it. I then placed a sheet of damped paper upon the plant, and afterwards 
two or three layers of flannel; a cylinder or roller w as passed over the whole with 
some considerable force. Some skill is requisite for the accomplishment of the 
object, but a few trials will enable a person to do it with facility ; a great number 
of impressions may be taken from one plant. Dr. Stokes says, “ this is by far 
the most certain method of transmitting to posterity a knowledge of such species 
as have been found of the greatest importance to mankind.” Several books have 
been published on the continent, of impressions taken from living plants. I 
have among my books the following w'orks of this kind : Flora Berolinensis, 
published by the Royal School, at Berlin, 1757, folio. This work contains im¬ 
pressions from 300 plants with their names. 2. Ectvpa Vegetabilium usibuo 
medicis. This work contains 200 impressions from medical plants, and is pre¬ 
ceded by an account of their use and culture by C. G. Lugwig, in German and 
Luten. Folio Leipsi, 1760. In my copy the plants are coloured. 3. I. H. Knip- 
hofii Botanica, in originalli; folio, printed at Halen, 1764. This work was pub¬ 
lished in volumes, each containing impressions from 100 plants. I am in pos¬ 
session of the last volume only, which is the 12th, and it is coloured. I have 
seen another method of taking impressions of small leaves practised with much 
success. A smooth piece of mill-board, or of card paper, slightly oiled on one side, 
is held over the flame of a lamp or candle so as to be blacked, and on this sur¬ 
face the leaf is laid, and every part of its upper-side is rubbed with the finger, 
the prominent parts of the lower side of the leaf take up the smoke moistened 
by the oil; the leaf is then laid with the blacked side downward on a sheet of 
paper, and the upper surface of the leaf is again rubbed with the finger, care be¬ 
ing taken not to press out the juice of the leaf, and that it does not slip during 
the operation. With a little practice, very elegant impressions of small leaves 
may be thus taken. 
A very useful and cheap work might be published of impressions of British 
plants taken off in a printer’s press, which, like these German works, would 
be of much benefit to students in Botany. I. T. 
