Directions for collecting and preserving botanical specimens.

  • Greville, Robert Kaye, 1794-1866.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Directions for collecting and preserving botanical specimens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ancl free from external moisture. They should be in a perfect state of growth, their leaves and other parts uninjured. When, as is the case in some plants, the lower stem-leaves differ in shape from the upper ones, and the plant is too large to pre- serve entire, portions of the lower parts of the stem with the leaves, should be taken separately: if the root-leaves also differ, they, too, should be preserved. In some cases, it is important to have the young shoot with its fully developed leaves, as in the genus Salix, where the stipules are deciduous; and also in the genus Rubus, where the leaves, &c. of the barren sur- culi are most characteristic. In short, it should always be borne in mind, that a perfect specimen of any plant includes every characteristic part. Bad specimens are always to be re- jected, unless the plant is of great rarity. It should, indeed, be adopted as a canon by the botanical collector, that no specimen is to be admitted under the idea that it will do for a duplicate, if it would not do for his own herbarium; and I can scarcely imagine a botanist content to manufacture and store up in his own collection, such vegetable remains as have been already al- luded to. Varieties are always interesting, as well as remark- able states and monstrosities, or deviations from the ordinary arrangement of any of the parts. In regard to the size of spe- cimens, the best guide is the paper most generally used in good herbaria : this is about 17 by 10^ inches. No specimens should therefore exceed 16 inches in length by 9^ inches in breadth. Plants under this size should invariably have the root attached. It may be laid down as a general rule, that the entire plant should be taken, if, by a little management, it can be brought within the above-mentioned limits. Grasses, Carices, and plants of a slender habit, may be folded once or twice back- wards and forwards, if necessary; and long slender Ferns, &c., may in this manner be preserved without mutilation. When it is inconvenient to obtain the root, the stem should be sepa- rated below the insertion of the root-leaves. The young col- lector is reminded, that specimens in fruit are to be selected as well as those in flower. 11. Apparatus requisite for Collecting and Preserving Plants. 1. The Digger. This is a sort of trowel, which will be bet