126 
DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING 
and the whole cluster of dowers and fruit, as well as a leaf, may 
be simply dried in the air, and afterwards packed in boxes for 
transportation. 
The greater number of cryptogamic plants may be dried in the 
common way, such mosses as grow in tufts being separated by the 
hand. But both mosses and lichens, as they can at any future time 
be expanded by damping, may be dried by the traveller without 
pressure, and put up, either each species separately or several 
together, in small canvas or paper bags, carefully marking the 
place of growth and the date when gathered. 
If the fruits of plants are of a small size so as to be preserved 
in a herbarium, they should be gathered with the leaves and branches 
as are the dowers ; if of a large size, they should be kept separate. 
Dry fruits demand no care, except that those which split into 
valves should be tied round with a little packthread. 
Pulpy fruits are only to be preserved in spirits, [or in formalin 
diluted with from five to ten parts of water]. In all cases the separate 
fruits, whether dry or preserved in a fluid, should have a number 
attached to them, referring to the flowering specimens of the plant. 
Seeds, whether for examination or intended to be sown, should be 
gathered perfectly ripe, put up in brown paper bags, and kept dry 
in a box. 
With the specimens, fruits and seeds, there should be slips of 
paper, on which are to be written the uses, native names, and 
general appearance of the plant, whether herbaceous, a shrub, or 
tree, its sensible qualities, and the colour and form of the dowers ; 
its situation, if dry or damp, the nature of the soil, the elevation 
above sea-level, and the date when gathered. 
As soon as a sufficient number of specimens are collected, no time 
should be lost in transporting them to their place of destination, 
since, in warm climates especially, they are liable to the attacks of 
insects. These attacks, which are often completely destructive of 
the specimens, may in many cases be prevented by pitching the 
boxes, and by putting in them, or in each parcel, cotton dipped in 
petroleum, spirits of turpentine, or small pieces of camphor [or 
naphthaline], and the captain of the vessel should be particularly 
requested to keep them in a dry or airy part of the ship. 
