The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-11
A YOUNG COLLECTORS HER
BARIUM.

The young botapist's necessary outfit
is Of the simplest description. 1t consists
of tro vel and box for plants. Any tin
box about foot and a half long will do,
il it has cover which makes it almost
alright. II you do not possess one of q
good size and shape, get the timer to
help you before you begin work. Tell
him the box should be fat oval, about
seventeen inches long and twenty-ons in
circumference, with as large lid as he
can make on the side. Ask him to put
on top a handle and two places for q
strap, so that you can hang the box over
your shoulder and use both hands il neg
essary.
Your place for work will be anywhere
and everywhere. Your own yard will be
an excellent one; that is. il you are for
tunate enough to live in the country and
possess one. You will be astonished at
the number Of unin vited guests you will
find there. IL you are beginning, how
ever, take wild flowers, quite large ones
at first, as the parts are more easily seen
and garden plants are often changed by
cultivation. But don't commence with
dandelions. They, with daisies, asters,
golden-rod, and many others, belong to q
great family named composite. What
you call one flower is really composed of
a number Of blossoms, and you will need
considerable experience before you can
manage one of them.
In collecting, always get the whole
plant, if you can carry, for perfect spec
linen must show the flower, stem, leaf,
root, if not too clumsy, and the fruit,
which must usually be gathered later in
the season. II the plant will not go into
the box, bend it several times if necessa-
ry; il altogether too large, break off the
blossoms with some foliage, and then see
il the leaves rest the ground do not
they do, be sure to get some, for they
may help you greatly in naming your
specimen. Dig up several plants of each
kind, for some will be spoiled in analyz.
ing and pressing.
Now home again; take your Gray's
Manual" or his Field and Garden Bot
any," But before you open your book
examine your plant thoroughly; pull it
all to pieces, and be sure you have no.
ticed every popularity. If you follow
this rule faithfully from the beginning.
you cannot fail to succeed, though you
are working without help, and make
many blunders at first.
Have you found what your specimen
is? Well, write on slip of paper it's
name-we'll say it is Oaltha palustris-
and after it L., which stands for Linn@us,
the botsnist who AIMED the plant. You
may not think this last very important,
but you will find it SO by-and-by. Next,
il you like, put that common name marsh
marigold. You have always called them
cow-slips, perhaps. Third, write the ex-
act place; and fourth, the date. Leave
the plants shut up in tin box, where
they will keep some time il sprinkled a
little, while we get a press ready.
First you need two boards, twelve by
twenty inches, and tire a-quarters of an
inch thick. A cleat nailed on each end
keeps them from wsrping. Then half a
dozen stones weighing about sixty pounds
In all. IL you can get the regular botan-
ical driere, which are sheets of heavy
blotting-paper twelve by eighteen inches,
mill do ha hoo
not get those, take several newspapers, or
sheets of soft, cheap wrapping paper, fold
them the size OF your boards, and stitch
them together at one end. Lay this drier
on the board; take doubled sheet of the
most porous, unsized wrapping paper you
can find (even newspaper will answeI) j;
open it, and lay in it your written slip
and the specimen. Try to arrange the
plant SO some leaves and flowers will
sho Y the upper, some the under side, and
SO that they will not overlap much. Fold
over the sheet. lay on it drier, or, better
three or four, then another sheet with a
specimen in it, then the driers, and so on.
Last, put on the second board and the
stones. You will need about fifty driers,
for tomorrow morning you must change
them.
Carefully lift the sheet in which the
specimen is folded, and put it between
fresh driers. Open it and straighten any
leaves which may have been doubled up,
but do not try to move the plant itself
for fear of spelling it. Spread out to the
air the driers taken from the press. If
You want good specimens you ought to
change them every morning at first, for
the more quickly the plants are dried the
better they will keep their color and the
prettier they will be. Leave them in the
press one or two weeks or even more.
Never take them out till they feel per-
fectly dry to the finger. II removed too
quickly the leaves will wrinkle.
Before the plants are mounted they
should be poisoned, or tiny insect will
sooner or later destroy them. Get the
druggist to put you up little bottle of
poison in the proportion of one ounce of
orr oSive sublimate to quart of alcohol.