er sunflowers, it be quite too long for the
page. Place only one specimen on a page, and fasten it in several places
with narrow strips of gummed paper. Last fall I had a bright idea. After
the election I collected a number of unused ballot pasters. From these
next summer I shall cut blank strips, already gummed, and I shall
moisten them with a wet camel's-hair brush, and use them for my
herbarium. Large leaves will stay down better if a drop of mucilage be
placed in their centre. When the stem is very heavy I sew it with double
thread tied on the under side, or I cut two small slits in my paper, and
slip the stem through. As fast as sheets are prepared, leave them under
a large book till the mucilage is dry. The page is then ready for
labelling. Write now in the lower right-hand corner your own name, the
botanical and common name of the flower, where and when found; or you
can get labels with your name printed on them, which you can paste on
the bottom of your page.

HERBARIUM OF J. BROWN.

_Caltha palustris_

(Marsh-Marigold).

IN MARSH NEAR BRIDGEPORT, MAY 3, 1894.

The papers belonging to the same family should now be placed inside of
family covers, made of still brown paper, and these again should be
inclosed in a box. I use the boxes in which tailors send my husband's
shirts and suits of clothes. On the cover of the box write the families
which it contains. That plan facilitates finding any particular
specimen. Certain families, as ferns and orchids, go well together;
mints and figworts are allied. Composites should have a box to
themselves, and the species should be gathered into genus covers.

The botany gives directions for poisoning plants, if you are likely to
be troubled with insects. Many of my mounted specimens are ten or twelve
years old, yet I have never had any such annoyance. Therefore I do not
poison my plants. I always use mucilage. Perhaps flour paste or starch
would afford food for insects.

It is pleasant to keep a flower calendar as part of the herbarium.
Procure a diary, and note the day when you first find certain flowers.
This, if kept several successive years, will show interesting variations
of season, and of the time of the flowering of the same plants.

For study of trees keep a leaf album. I know of no other way to learn
the many species of oak and maple.

The herbarium is never a finished book. Each year, as you visit
different parts of the country, you will add to its