r, when
they are fully matured and hard, and also when the weather, is hot and
dry. If gathered in continuous wet weather, hardly any amount of
drying will prevent the fronds from ultimately becoming mouldy, when
no amount of after-drying prevents them going brittle and dropping to
pieces. Ferns which have lost their green colouring matter, and are
going red and yellow, dry well, and retain their colours nicely if
quickly dried.

Foreign ferns, such as the various adiantums, the "gold" and "silver"
ferns, and many others, dry well, and retain their colour if care be
used; nothing suits foreign birds better as a background than the
ferns and grasses of the various countries they inhabit.

Paper used in the drying of botanical specimens is sold, but being too
expensive for this particular purpose, a supply of large sheets of
common grey paper used by ironmongers or grocers, or even brown paper,
will suffice--the ferns should, directly they are gathered, be laid
out straight on a board, or on a floor, and covered with paper, then
more ferns, again a layer of paper, and so on--a board weighted with
bricks should be placed over all, and suffered to remain for a few
days; the ferns are then to be turned, the paper dried, and the
process repeated.

When thoroughly dry, the ferns may be coloured with oil paint thinned
with turps and varnish, sufficient to give lustre without shininess.
Here and there break the green colour with white, red, blue, and
yellow, in a manner which will occur to anyone having artistic
ability. Ferns treated in this manner soon dry, and retain their
colour for an indefinite period, the only thing to be said against
them being their rather unnatural flatness--due to pressure; this,
however, may be counteracted by a little judgment during the drying,
one plan being the regulation of pressure at certain points, aided
also by clean dry sand.

Several hard-leaved plants (mostly foreign) found in our
conservatories are also excellent driers, many taking colour readily.

Many grasses (not the flowers, but the leaves or blades) dry well.
Amongst the best of these is the "wiregrass," found in woods, growing
especially over runnels in those localities. The flower also of this
plant is most eligible as a decorative agent. The wood melick is
another elegant and suitable plant.

The sedges (Carex) dry and colour well, as also several of the
water-rushes, reeds, and flags. The "toad-rush" (Juncus bufonius),