HOW TO DRY PLANTS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1858, 6 February 1880, Page 3

HOW TO DRY PLANTS.

[“ Castner’a Monthly.”]

The following instructions for drying plants are from the pen of the Rev. G. Henslow, one of the best practical botanists in England, and their precision and minuteness will make them welcome to such of our readers as desire to try their hand at this interesting and attractive mode oi preserving plants : The materials required are common cartridge paper, thick white blotting paper, cotton wadding and mill-board, all cut to the same size. The plants should be gathered in dry weather, and soon after the flowers open, when their colours are brightest. Succulent plants (such as daffodil; orchis, or stone crop) should be put into scalding water, with the exception of the flowers, for a minute or two, then laid on a cloth to dry. Arrange the papers and specimens in the following order: Mill-board, cartridge paper, wadding (split open, and the glazed side placed next to the cartridge paper), and blotting paper ; the specimens, having small pieces of wadding placed within and around the flowers to nry off the moisture as quickly as possible, blotting paper, wadding as before, cartridge paper, millboard. When the specimens, &c., are thus arranged, heavy weight should be put on them ; about thirty pounds the first day, sixty pounds afterwards. Remove them from under pressure in a day or two ; carefully take away all the papers, &0., except the blotting paper between which the specimens are placed ; put these in a warm air to dry, while the removed papers, &0., are dried in the sun or by the fire. When dry (but not warm) place them in the same order as before; put all under the heavier pressure for a few days when (if not succulent) they will be dry. Flowers of different colours require different treatment to preserve their colours. Blue flowers must be dried with heat, either under a case of hot sand before a Are, with a hot iron, or in a cool oven. Red flowers are injured by heat } they require to be washed with muriatic acid diluted in spirits of wine to fix the colour, one part of acid to three parts of spirits is about the proportion. The best brush to apply this mixture is tho_ head of a thistle when in seed, as the acid destroys a hair pencil, and injures whatever it touches (except glass or china); therefore it should be used with great care. Many yellow flowers turn green even after they have remained yellow for some weeks ; they must, therefore, he dried repeatedly before the fire, and again after they are mounted on paper, and kept in a dry place. Purple flowers require as much care, or they soon turn to a light brown. flowers turn brown if handled or bruised before they are died. Daisies, pansies, and some other flowers must not be removed from under the pressure for two or three days, or the petals will curl up. As all dried plants (ferns excepted) are liable to be infested with minute insects, a small quantity of the poison, corrossive sublimate, dissolved in spirits of wine, should be added to the paste, which it will also preserve from mould. The best cement for fixing the specimens on the paper or card-board is gum paste. It is composed of thick gum water and flour, mixed iu warm water, by adding the two together warm and of a consistency that will run off the hair pencil. To bleach fern leaves. —Gather them when the flowers are on the backs of the leaves, press them in a book till ready for bleaching ; then suspend them by a thread in a jar filled with the bleaching solution, and let them remain till they are white ; rinse gently but thoroughly in clear water and lay between soft folds of muslin : when dry they are ready to be mounted.