PROCESS  OF  PRESERVING  PLANTS. 
163 
PROCESS  OF  PRESERVING  PLANTS  IN  THEIR  ORDINARY  FORM 
AND  WITH  THE  BRILLIANCY  OF  THEIR  FLOWERS. 
By.  MM.  Reveil,  Prof,  to  the  School  of  Pharmacy  of  Paris,  and  Berjot, 
Pharmacien  at  Caen. 
It  has  long  been  a  desideratum  to  preserve  plants  in  such  a 
way  as  to  retain  their  natural  form  and  appearance.  Processes 
having  this  object  have  long  since  been  described.  We  will  take 
a  rapid  view  of  these  processes,  before  describing  that  which  we 
propose,  and  which  we  have  always  found  successful. 
In  1770,  M.  Quer,  a  Spaniard,  presented  to  the  Academy  of 
Bologna  a  collection  of  plants,  dried  with  care  and  very  elegant; 
but  in  the  process  indicated  the  leaves  and  branches  were  de- 
tached, and  dried  separately  between  leaves  of  paper  in  the  sun, 
or  in  a  gently  heated  oven.  The  flowers  retained  their  lustre 
and  their  form,  if  the  desiccation  was  very  rapid,  and  if  very 
little  pressure  was  employed  ;  then  the  leaves  and  branches  were 
again  gummed  on  to  the  principal  stem.  It  is  easy  to  under- 
stand that  this  process  must  be  very  long,  and  that,  moreover,  it 
was  difficult  and  even  impossible  to  restore  the  leaves  and  branches 
to  their  natural  position.  M.  Monty,  who  described  this  process 
in  the  Observations  sur  la  Physique  et  sur  VHistoire  Naturelle, 
1772,  page  623,  ascertained  that  the  temperature  of  the  human 
body  is  the  most  suitable  for  this  desiccation ;  it  was  by  this 
means  that  he  was  enabled  to  preserve  tulips,  anemones,  ranun- 
culus, &c. 
The  celebrated  anatomist,  Ruisch,  gives  in  his  work  entitled 
Premier  Tresor,  various  processes  for  the  preservation  of  animal 
matters,  some  of  which  may  be  applied  to  plants. 
But  it  is  especially  to  Monty  that  we  owe  the  most  interesting 
researches.  We  insert  them  here  with  so  much  the  more  pleasure, 
as  his  observations  completely  agree  with  our  own  ;  we  did  not 
know  his  works  when  we  commenced  our  experiments ;  if  we  had 
known  them  some  months  ago,  we  should  have  been  spared  much 
trouble  and  many  experiments. 
M.  Monty  endeavored,  in  1772,  to  preserve  the  plants  without 
subjecting  them  to  the  least  pressure  ;  several  attempts  had  been 
made  in  this  direction ;  but  fruitlessly.  He  first  tried  desicca- 
tion in  millet  seed ;  but  he  saw  that  by  this  means  the  flowers 
and  leaves  were  wrinkled,  and  moreover,  they  retained  the  im- 
