In these papers the specimens are fastened down in the following manner:
Gum over a portion of the cartridge paper (so as to have the same colour) with two consecutive coats of a clean solution of gum-arabic.
This can be cut into slips of any length and breadth, making them as narrow as possible for the sake of neatness, and when the specimen is placed in its paper, a few of these slips may be made to confine it in the desired position. Each example is then to be labelled at the bottom of the sheet, and each label should set forth—a, Its botanical name; b, its trivial or local name; c, the locality whence it was obtained; d, the date when gathered; added to which, if presented, the donor's name.[H]
[H] Printed herbarium labels may be got at Messrs. Hardwicke and Bogue's, the publishers.
The sheets so prepared may be arranged in groups or genera, each being folded in convenient paper or cloth wrappers, and the whole arranged in volumes of stiff covered portfolio.
This, then, is all that seems to us necessary in the collection and preservation of grasses; but we would recommend the student, if an artist, to make a typical specimen of each sit for its portrait. In this way we have made drawings of all the species and varieties that have come in our way.
Our drawings are life-size, usually lined in with Indian ink with a fine "lithographic pen." These we partially colour on the spot.
The anatomical details are much enlarged and always fully coloured. To this end our impedimenta for a day among the grasses consist of, besides the collecting portfolio, a sketching block, large octavo size, and a small box of soft colours. Armed with these we have made many a drawing of a grass under the shade of a tree, or in the parlour of some contiguous inn.
Lastly, we would venture to remark, if, besides the interest which grasses should have for the student of botany, these plants be viewed, as they have ever been by us, as indicators of the nature of soil and the value and capabilities of the land on which they grow, the collector should not fail to make notes connected with the soil, situation, and other practical facts connected with the habitats of Grasses.