22 BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS. [Ch. Il 
culty in your affording your parents this gratificaticn. Ali tnat 
you need in pressing plants, is some sheets of paper, (newspa- 
pers will answer, they are better than more firm and stiff paper) 
a board, and a stone or some other weight to press the plant. 
Some leaves and flowers of the plant should be carefully 
spread out upon one sheet of paper, and half a dozen other 
sheets placed over them;—the board with the weight should 
then be laid upon the upper sheet of paper. The plants at 
first, ought to be taken out and placed between dry sheets of 
paper as often as once or twice a day. Some will dry in a few 
days, others require more time. 
66. When you have as many as fifty specimens prepared, 
you can then arrange them in a blank book, fastening upon the 
first page of each leaf one or more flowers, either with glue or 
by means of cutting through the paper and raising loops, un- 
der which the stems may be placed. By the sides of the plant 
should be written the class, order, genus, and species, and al- 
so the place where found, that is, whether in dry or wet ground, 
Icw or mountainous, &c., and also at what season of the year. 
Such herbariums would do.children much credit if prepared to 
be exhibited at public examinations of their school. 
67. Young botanists, as well as those who are older, may 
derive great pleasure in making excursions into the fields, and 
upon the hills and mountains, for the purpose of collecting 
plants. Thus they learn to love every blossom which springs 
up under their feet; their hearts beat with pleasure when they 
meet with some little strange flower, which exhibits new traits 
in the character of the vegetable race. Every murmuring brook 
shows its banks clad with flowery treasures; the forests and 
groves exhibit another, but not less beautiful assemblage ot 
plants ; and the mountain, the valley, and the sea coast, have 
all their own peculiar vegetable productions. 
68. Did the great Being who created such a profusion of 
these beautiful and curious objects, and who also gave to chil- 
dren eyes to see, hearts to love, and understandings to study 
them, intend they should pass them by with neglect? No, my 
dear children, it is your duty, as it should be your pleasure, to 
search into the wonders of created nature, to exercise your 
mental faculties, and to animate your pious feelings in thinking 
much upon the works of God. 
66. How should dried plants be arranged in a book ? 
67. What is said of making botanical excursions ? 
68. What is said of paying attention to the works of God 3 
