Perhaps some of the readers of Young People would like to know how I am getting a collection of pressed leaves, flowers, etc., for they are very interesting as well as pretty.
My Leaf Album, as I call it, is a blank-book about four and a half inches wide and seven and a half long, and it opens at the end. But I think that a larger book would be better, because it would hold some large leaves.
I put the leaves on one side of the paper only, and fasten them in with a tiny touch of gum mucilage, and beneath each I write the name, date, where picked, and often a few words relating to something that occurred. For instance, below one leaf in my album I wrote: "Elm leaf. May 22, 1880. Picked from the tree on which we had our swing, at the Sunday-school picnic, near the lake, five miles north of L——."
When I pick a leaf or flower I put it in a book to dry, arranging it carefully, and with it I put a slip of paper, on which I write the name of the leaf or flower, the date when picked, etc., so as not to get my specimens mixed. Then when they are real dry, I put them in my album.
Among the flowers in my album I have some potato blossoms, and they are very handsome. They keep their bright colors when dry. I think a great deal of my leaf album, and it is much admired by every one.
I will exchange pressed leaves and flowers, for pressed flowers from other States, and especially from foreign countries.
To go safely through the mails they should be placed between two thicknesses of card or paste board. I also have some foreign postage stamps, and I will give ten for ten department stamps; or fifteen foreign stamps, or the same number of postmarks, for a half-cent of 1849, or two of any other date.
A Reader of "Young People,"
P. O. Box 915, Emporia, Lyon Co., Kansas.
William and Jennie Otterson, Bennet Creek, Idaho, wish to notify their correspondents that they can not exchange any more Indian arrow-heads.
Lucy Sharp, Bridgeton, New Jersey, gives notice to correspondents that she has no more ferns to exchange.
L. H. Nelson, Philadelphia, notifies his correspondents that he was burned out, and is forced to withdraw from our exchange list.
The following exchanges are offered by correspondents: