Bulletin - United States National Museum - Smithsonian Institution

218 FLORA OF WASHINGTON AND VICINITY.
specimens are located in your portfolio in the chronological order of their
collection and you label them immediately after reaching home, there
will never be any doubt as to the locality or any of the important attend-
ant circumstances, such as you will wish to record on your label.
This latter consideration suggests a final observation relative to the col-
lection of plants, viz., that of taking notes. There are certain facts which
it is necessary to note down in the field, and this should always be done,
leaning in the direction of making the record, even though you may
doubt whether it is worth the trouble ; still, in botany note-taking is
probably less necessai->' than in almost any other branch of natural
science, since the objects upon which you would comment are usually
carried home, where the facts may be more thoroughly observed and
more fully and accurately described.
Much better than the field note-book, though to some extent depend-
ent upon this, is the botanical diary or journal, in which are recorded,
after returning from each excursion, all the facts of interest observed
during the day. This should be written up as soon as the day's col-
lection is disposed of, from notes made in the field or while analyzing
the plants, or from memory of the less specific events. The habit of
noting down variances from the descriptions in the books while identi-
fying the specimens is to be highly commended as leading to exact
observation, and a botanist should think while he works, and inquire
after the causes of phenomena, for there is a.deep biological significance
in every mori)liological peculiarity.
The beginner will do well, say the second year, to commence a private
local catalogue in a separate book for the purpose, numbering each
species as he identifies it. This catalogue will inevitably contain many
mistakes and duplications, but it will always be very useful as well as
interesting.
3. Preservation of plants.
The next step in the botanist's work is to preserve the specimens
which he has collected. They should not be allowed to lie in the port
folio over night, but if it is impossible to attend to them all, then as
many should be pressed as possible, beginning with those first collected
(and this is another advantage in a methodical way of filling the port-
folio). Those last collected may perhaps lie till the next morning, but
if of a tender character or very juicy, it is best to slip in a dry paper on
both sides of each specimen. If any require further study, and have to
be left in the portfolio for this purpose, it is as well to abandon the hope