Preservation of dried plants

1027. The mode or state in which plants are preserved, is generally desiccation, accompanied by pressing. Some persons, Sir J. E. Smith observes, recommend the preservation of specimens in weak spirits of wine, and this mode is by far the most eligible for such as are very juicy; but it sometimes destroys their colours, and renders their parts less fit for examination than by the process of drying. It is, besides, incommodious for frequent study, and a very expensive and bulky way of making a herbarium.