148 
DRYING  OF  PLANTS  FOE  THE  HERBARIUM. 
tea,  which  do  not  float  upon  sea-water.  There  remain,  therefore, 
7  species  which  might  float  upon  the  surface  of  the  sea  for  three 
months  without  losing  their  germinative  power,  and  these  are 
only  £th  of  the  total  number  operated  upon.  They  are,  Cucurbita 
pepo,  Xanthium  macroearpum,  Rumex  aquations,  Beta  vulgaris, 
Ricinus  communis,  R.  afrieanus,  and  Ephedra  distachya. 
Considering  the  extraordinary  concurrence  of  circumstances 
necessary  to  enable  a  seed  thrown  upon  a  shore  to  fructify  and 
become  the  centre  of  a  vegetable  colony,  we  may  conclude  with 
Alph.  de  Candolle,  that  this  mode  of  transport,  which  is  so  fre- 
quently referred  to,  can  have  taken  only  a  very  small  part  in 
the  diffusion  of  the  plants  of  the  present  and  geological  epochs  ; 
and  yet  the  number  of  identical  species  separated  by  vast  seas, 
and  which  marine  currents  alone  could  have  transported  from 
one  continent  to  another,  is  so  considerable,  that  the  idea  of  the 
multiplicity  of  the  centres  of  creation  will  every  day  acquire 
more  probability  Oomptes  Rendus,  24  Aug.  1857,.  as  translated 
in  the  Annals  of  Natural  History,  and  Pharm,  Jour. 
ON  THE  DRYING  OF  PLANTS  FOR  THE  HERBARIUM. 
By  Mr.  Chas.  Wright. 
A  botanical  voyager  and  traveller,  whose  explorations  have 
extended  over  a  large  portion  of  the  new  United  States'  terri- 
tories (New  Mexico,  Texas,  California)  into  Japan,  &c,  and 
more  recently  into  the  mountain  districts  of  Cuba,  Mr.  Charles 
Wright,  whose  experience  consequently  entitles  him  to  attention, 
and  whose  specimens  confirm  the  excellence  of  his  practice, 
suggests  improvements  in  the  ordinary  method  practiced  by  the 
English  botanists  in  drying  plants  for  the  herbarium. 
He  writes,  in  a  letter  from  Santa  Catalina  de  Guarsa  (Cuba,) 
May,  1857  :— 
"  Allow  me  to  suggest  that  you  alter  your  directions*  for 
collecting  plants  in  one  particular,  and  substitute  for  the  tin  box 
or  vasculum,  one  or  two  portfolios  that  will  hold  each  four  to  six 
*This  alludes  to  "Directions"  printed  and  circulated  by  the  Royal 
Oardens  of  Kew,  for  the  use  of  travellers  and  those  herborizing  in  distant 
countries. 
