formed a good stout bundle, place it between the pasteboards, and compress it with your cord or straps. In the evening, or at the first convenient opportunity, unstrap the package, take a fresh sheet of paper, and make it very dry and hot before a fire; into the sheet, so heated, transfer the specimens from the first sheet of paper in your package; then dry that sheet, and shift into it the specimens lying in the second sheet; and so go on, till all your specimens are shifted; then strap up the package anew, and repeat the operation at every convenient opportunity, till the plants are dry. They should then be transferred to fresh paper, tied up rather loosely, and laid by. Should the Botanist be stationary, or in any civilised country, he may dry his paper in the sun; or, if the number of specimens he has to prepare is inconsiderable, he may simply put them between cushions in a press resembling a napkin-press, laying it in the sun, or before a hot fire. It is extremely important that specimens should be dried quickly, otherwise they are apt to become mouldy and rotten, or black, and to fall in pieces. Notwithstanding all the precautions that can be taken, some plants, such as Orchidaceæ, will fall in pieces in drying: when this is the case, the fragments are to be carefully preserved, in order that they may be put together when the specimen is finally glued down. In many cases, particularly those of Coniferæ, Ericæ, &c., the leaves may be prevented falling off by plunging the specimen, when newly gathered, for a minute into boiling water. The great objects in drying a specimen are, to preserve its colour, if possible, which is not often the case, and not to press it so flat as to crush any of the parts, because that renders it impossible subsequently to analyse them.

Specimens of wood should be truncheons, five or six inches long, and three or four inches in diameter, if the plant grows so much. They should be planed smooth at each extremity, but neither varnished nor polished.

Specimens of fruits simply require to be dried in the sun. When specimens shall have been thoroughly dried, they should be fastened by strong glue, not gum nor paste. to half-sheets of good stout white paper: the place where they were found, or person from whom they were obtained, should

be written at the foot of each specimen, and the name at the lowest right-hand corner. If any of the flowers, or fruits, or seeds, are loose, they should be put into small paper cases, which may be glued, in some convenient place, to the paper. These cases are extremely useful; and fragments so preserved, being well adapted for subsequent analysis, will often prevent the specimen itself from being pulled in pieces.

The best size for the paper appears, by experience, to be 10 inches by 16. Linnæus used a size resembling our foolscap; but it is much too small; and a few employ paper 11 inches by 18; but that is larger than is necessary, and much too expensive.

In analysing dried specimens, the flowers or fruits should always be softened in boiling water: this renders all the parts pliable, and often restores them to their original position.

In arranging specimens, when thus prepared, every species of the same genus should be put into a wrapper formed of a whole sheet of paper, and marked at the lower left corner with the name of the genus. The genera should then be put together according to their natural orders.

In large collections it is often found difficult to preserve that exact order which is indispensable to the utility of a herbarium; and, accordingly, we constantly find Botanists embarrassed by multitudes of unarranged specimens. As this is a great evil, I trust that a few hints upon the subject may not be without their use; especially as, by attending to them myself, I have probably not 500 unarranged specimens in a herbarium of more than 30,000 species. Never suffer collections, however small, to accumulate; but, the very day, if possible, that a parcel of dried plants arrives, put each in its place. For this purpose they should not be glued down; but each species, with a ticket explaining its origin, name, &c., should be laid loose upon a half-sheet of waste paper, and then put into the cover of the genus to which it belongs: if the genus is not recognised, and there is no time for determining it, then take a cover marked with the name of the order at its lower left-hand corner, and put them in it; or, if the order is not known, then put the specimens into covers marked with the names of countries instead of orders,

after which you can examine them, from time to time, as opportunities may occur: in the herbarium above named, there are about 300 species thus laid by for consideration. Afterwards, when leisure permits, those generic covers in which there appears to be the greatest accumulation of loose specimens should be examined, the species compared and sorted, new species glued upon fresh half-sheets of paper, and duplicates taken out. The advantage of this plan is, that, under any circumstances, if it is wished to consult a particular order, all the materials you possess will be found, in some state or other, collected into one place. I am persuaded that, if this simple method were attended to, the confusion now so common in herbaria, and which renders so many of them almost useless, would never exist.

Fruits, if large, will be placed loose on shelves, in cases with glass fronts; or, if smaller, in little bottles, in which also seeds should be preserved; each fruit or bottle being labelled, and the whole arranged according to natural order. Specimens of wood may be conveniently combined with a carpological collection, and arranged on the same plan. When the sections of wood are very large, as is sometimes the case, there may be an extra compartment at the base of the case, in which they can be placed.

The cases in which the specimens are arranged may be made of any well-seasoned timber; mahogany is best; but pine wood will answer the purpose. They should consist of little closets, of a size convenient for moving from place to place; of which, two, placed one on the other, will form a tier. Each closet should have folding-doors, and its shelves should be in two rows: the distance from shelf to shelf should be six inches. The sides and ends of the closets should be made of -inch board; but for the shelves -inch is sufficient.

To preserve plants against the depredations of insects, by which, especially the little Anobium castaneum, they are apt to be much infested, it has been recommended to wash each specimen with a solution of corrosive sublimate in camphorated spirits of wine; but, independently of this being a doubtful mode of preservation, it is expensive, and, in large collec

tions, excessively troublesome. I have found that suspending little open paper bags, filled with camphor, in the inside of the doors of my cabinets, is a more simple and a sufficiently effectual protection. It is true that camphor will not drive away the larvæ that may be carried into the herbarium in fresh specimens; but the moment they become perfect insects they quit the cases, without leaving any eggs behind them.

In all large collections of specimens there must necessarily be a constant accumulation of duplicates: as they are of no utility to the possessor, he will, if he is a liberal man, and wishes well to science, distribute them among his friends, or other men of science, in order that the means of observation and examination, upon which the progress of science depends, may be multiplied at the greatest possible number of points. He will not hoard them up till insects, dust, and decay destroy them; he will not plead want of leisure (meaning want of inclination) for looking them out, or, when applied to for them, invent some frivolous excuse for avoiding compliance with the request; on the contrary, he will be anxious to disembarrass himself of that which is superfluous, and it will be his greatest pleasure to find himself able to supply others with the same means of study as himself. Conduct with regard to the disposal of duplicate specimens is a sure sign of the real nature of a man's mind. We may be perfectly certain, for all experience proves it, that to be liberal in the distribution of duplicates is a sign of a liberal generous disposition, and of a man who studies science for its own sake; while, on the other hand, a contrary line of conduct is an equally certain indication of a contracted spirit, and of a man who studies science less for the sake of advancing it, than in the hope of being able to gain some little additional reputation by which his own fame may be extended. A private individual has, no doubt, a right to do as he likes with that which is his own, just as a miser has a right to hoard his money, if such is his taste; but, of the keepers of public collections, it is the bounden duty to take care that every thing in their charge be rendered, in every possible manner, available for the advancement of science.

It is most honourable to the British government, and espe

cially to the Court of Directors of the East India Company, and to the Commissioners for the Affairs of India, that this great public principle has been recognised; and I trust the day is not distant when the trustees of the British Museum will order it to be acted upon, both in spirit and in letter, by the officers in charge of the public property in that national institution.