Chapter II: Botany

The botanical riches of the museum are composed--1º Of living vegetables cultivated in the garden--2º of the collection of dry plants or herbals, of the different parts of plants dried and in alchool, such at woods, fruits, etc. And of all the produits of the vegetable kingdom that are capable of preservation--3º of the collection of fossil plants.

_Living plants._

To promote the progress of science, agriculture and horticulture, it is important to collect in a central garden, like that of Paris, the greatest number of living plants possible.

To attain this end, either living plants must be sent, or their seeds. Both of these ways are attended with difficulties, according to the nature of the plants, and the length of the voyage they have to endure.

We shall only treat the parcels sent from countries out of Europe that must endure a voyage of from one to four or five months, because packages which are on the road but 15 or 20 days, only require those ways of putting up employed in all the nurseries of Europe.

In the transportation of living plants, distinction should be made of the ligneous plants, young trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, which are neither pulpy plants, tubercles or roots, from that of these last vegetables.

The transportation of the roots, underground bulbs and tubercles, such as those of the lily tribe, irides, dioscarea, land archides, aroidees, gesneria, of many of the Oxalis, Trospoculum, etc., is easily effected by packing these parts carefully in dry moss, or very dry sand, with wich the box should be filled up; the parasitic orchides or epyphites, with green bulbs, can be sent in wooden boxes, pierced with little holes, and kept dry; all the old leaves should be taken off, as, in their decay, they cause dampness, and the roots wrapped in dry moss or cloth. The same means may be used for the pulpy plants, such as the cactus: any dry flexible substance, not subject to dampnes, as hairwool etc. may be used to pack them. These pulpy plants, if large, should be separated from the others, so that they may not be tainted by their decay.

They should be packed with great care, because their tissue, more watery than that of the tubercles and roots, may be crushed under their weight, often considerable.

For the transportation of living plants, neither pulpy or tuberculous, it is necessary to place them in glazed boxes, of a peculiar construction, first invented and used in England by M. N. Ward.

These boxes vary in form and size but not to take up too much room on the decks of ships, where they should always remain; they should not exceed the following dimensions:

9 to 11 decimetres long, 5 wide, 7 to 40 high.]

The bottom should not touch the deck, but must be raised some centimetres by the feet on the four corners, so that sea water may not damp the box.

The two smal sides of the oblong chest cut in the upper part in pointed shape, have two glassed frames, and form a two-sided roof.

The sides and bottom should be made of oak or hard wood from 25 to 30 millimetres thick, dry and joined with groves, so that there may be no fissure.

The glassed frames are divided by cross pieces from 4 to 5 centimetre wide, extending from the upper to the lower edge, from 7 to 8 centimètres apart. These grooved cross pieces receive the glasses which should be thick, covering one another like the tiles of a roof, and well cemented. One of the frames is fixed on one of the sides of the chest; the other is fixed on the other sides, and on the upper frame opposite, with screws well oiled to prevent rust. These boxes should be well puttied and painted.

Two strong iron handles should be fixed on each end of the box; and a solid grate made of iron wire, propped above the glasses by several iron rods, will prevend their fracture.

A bed of 4 or 5 centimetres of clayey earth moist enough to stick to the bottom, is first put in the box; then a layer of earth, mined if possible with vegetable decay of 15 or 20 centimetres; the plants are embedded in this earth either in pots or wicker baskets.

To prevent accidents on a long voyage and especially from the port to Paris, straw and rushes may be used, with wooden cross pieces nailed to the partitions of the chest.

A box of the size described contains from 15 to 25 or 30 plants according to their size.

Seeds, especially of the kinds that preserve with difficulty their germinating power, may be sown among these plants, such as those of the palms, laurels, oaks, several conifers, roses, etc.

Plants put in these boxes should have good roots, and not taken directly from the country. In case they are, time should be given them to take root, before closing the box.

Before closing the box, care should be taken to water the earth well, but not too much.

It should then be hermetically sealed, and not opened during the voyage. It should be kept on the open deck, and if the glasses are broken, they should be immediatly replaced; if there are holes in the wood, they should be puttied.

The box should never be put below except it contains tropic plants and the cold extreme. For light frosts, a cloth is sufficient, and they should have all the sun possible.

The best time for sending plants to France is betwen April and october.

Seeds should also be sent.

A great number of seeds keep for a year and more, if gathered ripe and kept dry. Seeds are ripe when they fall off, or when the fruits, that inclose them, open. But seeds apparently dry, often contain a great quantity of water which would mould them, if put up in that state. They should be dried by the sun in the open air several days before packing, especially berries and pulpy fruits. They should be pressed and dried in the sun or in brown paper, like plants prepared for herbals.

The best way of keeping them, in a long voyage, is to dry them perfectly, wrap them in thick paper, and put them in thick bags hung in a dry and airy place.

There are seeds, especially those that contain oily matter, that must be germinated on the voyage. Such are, among exotics, the seeds of our climate, cocorus, chesnust, beechnuts; and among exoctics, the seeds of the Laurel, many of the Palms, several Conifers, Arancarias, tea and coffee seeds, goyaviers, and other myrtinees.

The best way of sending these seeds is to sow them in the glass cases described above, either among other plants, or in special boxes of smaller size; but common boxes or barrels will do, if there are no glass boxes, well filled with earth. The seeds should be put in light earth a little damp, or in dust of decayed wood. Five or 6 centimetres of earth are put at the bottom of a box, and the seeds sown in this earth at distances, equal to the size of the seed. Then another layer of earth of three centimetres, then a bed of seeds, and so on up to 3 or 4 decimetres in height. Care should be taken to fill the box so that the seeds may not be injured.

Care should be taken to keep the box dry, and beyond the reach of salt water, which always kills plants and seeds.

All the plants should be labelled--The numbers should correspond with a catalogue which should declare for each plant: 1º The country from which it comes--2º The kind of soil where it grows, such as woods, rocks, meadows, marshes, etc.--3º An approximation to the height of the place, if it comes from a mountainous country, so as to distinguish the plants of the tropics and the temperate and frigid zones--4º The common name of the plant, either among the Europeans established in the country or the natives--5º Its uses, its characteristics, and the color of its flowers.

This information should be marked in the catalogue of seeds sent stratified or sown in the glass cases; for seeds preserved dry in bags, it is best to write these notes upon the bags.

We cannot particularise all the plants we desire, because our wants vary every year by new acquisitions and losses; but the administration will endeavour to give them to the inhabitants of distant countries who are willing to lists of supply our deficiencies.

We will specify some families and kinds whose absence in our collection of living plants we regret.

These are:

1º Those which grow alike in the tropical regions of the old and new continent:

The Rhizophorees (mangliers and paletuviers) chailletices, connaracies, burmaniacees, xyridee, Eriocolons, Podostemees, the loranthus parasites, lardizabalees, Pistias.

Among the Fern, Gleichenias, Trochomanes, Hymenophyllum, schizea, Danaea, Angiopteris, Salvinia and Azolla.

2º In Asia:

Dipterocarpiees, aquilarinees (aloes or eagle-wood), Apostasiees, Guetrum (guemon of Molucca), the nipa, a kind of Palm-tree.

_Dry vegetables or vegetables preserved in alcohol_.

These collections contains:

1º Herbals or plants dried in leaves of paper;

2º Fruits and preserved seeds, either dry or in alcohol;

3º Pulpy flowers also preserved in liquor;

4º Portions of roots, trunks and samples of wood;

5º Different products of the vegetable kingdom, such as flax, starch, gums, resins, dyestuffs, substances employed in the medicine or the arts;

6º Samples relative to anatomy and vegetable physiology.

The care necessary to enrich these collections are generally less than those required for zoology.

Herbals and collections of fruits and flowers--Samples in buds, flowers and fruits of plants intended for herbals should be collected when the plant is small, and generally when it is of a size to be kept in a leaf of paper by folding. It should be taken with the root; when it is larger, it should be cut in pieces of 40 or 50 centimetres (16 to 18 inches). Or the great herbaceous plants, whose leaves vary often at different heights on the trunk, the base of the stalk with the leaves that support it should be preserved,--and branches with flowers and leaves. A layer of several leaves of brown paper is placed alternatively with a sample of a plant, or several, if they are small and can be spread on the paper without touching. Then a new layer of paper, then a new sample, and so on. When the packet has a certain thickness (2 to 3 decimetres at most) it should be pressed between two pieces of paste board by means of cords or girths and a buckle. The pressure should be moderate, enough to prevent the plants from wrinkling, but not enough to change their shapes, or crush their tissue by flattening them too much. The parcels, to dry well, should be placed on a dry board; or, better, hung up, so that the boards be in a vertical position. It is well to change several time the layers of paper; first, soon after the drying has commenced.

The drying of plants may be much quickened by dividing them into packets of 8 or 10 packets only, with very little paper between, and pressing them between two frames furnished with a wire grate tied up by strings; a layer of four or five leaves of paper should be placed on each side, immediately under the grate, to render the pressure more uniform and keep the plants from crisping; if these small packets are exposed to the sun or a current of air, the plants dry rapidly, often before the paper is changed that contains them; but unless there is a great number of these frames, it is impossible to dry but a small number of plants, and this process would be especially useful for those persons to whom the formation of an herbal is but an accessory occupation.

Botanists who wish to dry many plants without using much paper should place packets of 15 or 20 plants, arranged as we have just pointed out, in a stove with a current of air, heated up to 50 centigrades by a lamp placed below, and separated from the plants by a cross partition of punctured plate.

In twelve or twenty four hours the specimens are perfectly dry. This process, first successfully employed in Paris by M. Doyère, is most useful in warm and damp climates, and for plants difficult to dry; it is easily employed in scientific voyages.

Bamboo frames, found everywhere in tropical climates, replace excellently frames and bars of iron.

There is another more speedy process which requires much less paper, but preserves less perfectly the dried specimens. It only needs a dry and spacious room. The flowers are placed in a simple sheet of paper and pressed; then the sheets are spread out, for the night, on the floor, and, when dry, pressed again. This process it not so good as the former, and should be made use of only when there is a lack of paper.

This is all the art of making herbals; and every intelligent traveller knows how to suit his process to circumstances.

In damp times and regions, it is well to quicken the process of drying. Paper perfectly dry should only be used, and changed often. The paper should be dried in a warm oven, where bread has just been baked.

Watery plants, such as bulbs, orchides, etc., continue green in herbals several months after they are placed in them. It is well to plunge them in boiling water for one minute, or, still better, to put them in alcohol for a couple of hours; then they should be taken out and placed between two leaves of brown paper, where it dries easily, as the action of boiling water or alcohol has destroyed the life of the plant.

There are plants whose leaves or flowers easily break after drying; in such cases, all the parts should be sent separately.

There are families of plants that require peculiar processes of preservation. Palms, on account of their size, cannot be preserved in common herbals. Yet, it is important to complete the history of this remarquable family. For this, must be preserved:--1º The dried leaves in paper spread out, when they are not too large; folded like a fan, dried in the air and wrapped in brown paper well tied, when they are large.--2º Clusters of flowers or carymbs with the common envelope, taking care to preserve equally the male and female flowers, when they are separate; they should be dried quickly in the open air and wrapped in paper or cloth, taking care to collect the flowers that fall of. When these clusters are not large, it would be well to preserve them in weak alcohol, and, in all cases, it should be used for branches to be put in the same jar with ripe fruits of the same plant.--3º Clusters of ripe fruits dried in the air and other fruits in alcohol.

Those great marine plants, commonly known by the name of sea-weed, should be dried by hanging them in the shade, in the open air, without pressing them in paper; they should, afterwards, be put in paper bags, with a label of the place where they were collected and their color when fresh.

They can be better prepared in Paris than in travelling, as they often require much care, unless the traveller is skilled in the art. Samples preserved in alcohol would be useful for anatomical researches.

Before drying the small kind in the same manner in the open air, all the sea water should be pressed out, by squeezing them gently, and absorbing it with brown paper.

The most of the other criptogamous plants, such as the fern, mosses, lichens, mushrooms large and small, are prepared in herbals as other vegetables.

The only proper way to preserve the pulpy mushroom is alcohol, or wrapping them in flax or cotton; but a note or sketch should be made of their colors, for only their form and structure are thus preserved. Young specimens of these plants are preferable.

However the collections we have spoken of are made, a label should be attached to each of the specimens indicating:

1º The place where the plant was found, and if the place is little known, its position with relation to one that is;

2º The time of the gathering of the specimens, whether in flower or fruit;

3º The name the plant bears, taking care to have it repeated several times, and its meaning should be added, whenever it is known;

4º The uses of the plant in domestic economy, the arts or medicine;

5º The color of the different parts and particulary that of the flower, its odor, the consistence of the fruit, and the manner it opens, when ripe; in fine, all the phenomena relative to the plant;

6º The size, direction and consistence of the plant. If it is a tree of some size, and if the traveller can sketch, it would be well to give a drawing of its form, especially for palms and other monocotyledons; common trees, if there is no sketch made or them, they may be compared to some of the best known trees in Europe;

7º Numbers should be written on the separate samples of the fruits, seeds, flowers, or wood of the same plant, which form the parcel the traveller sends, as well as on the samples of the same plant that he keeps and on his catalogue or journal, so that he can afterwards give accurate information of the plants he sends. These numbers should not be repeated during the same tour, but should form a series, to avoid confusion.

If the traveller can measure, or knows the height above the sea of the regions he travels over, he should add to the note relative to each plant a statement of the height where it was found; the exact height is not necessary. If he does not know the height, the omission can be partially remedied by the most remarkable and abundant vegetables that grow around[4].

[4] On mountains, each species of plants only grows to a
determined hight, trawellers can therefore notice the most
remarkable of them either by their shape, size or their
abundance, indicating them by their names or by figure; and
point-out by lines where these species cease growing adding a
certain number of zones and indicating the zone in which each
plant grows.

Dry fruits should be sent in boxes with a label and number corresponding to that of the branch of the plant, in the herbal, to which they belong. All the dry fruits of too large size to be well preserved in herbals, should be collected separately, the ripest chosen, dried carefully and wrapped in paper. Those of palms, pandanus, zamia, conifers, proteacees, lecythidees, cucurbitacees, the leguminous family, the bignonias, bombacees, sterculiacees, especially deserve to be collected separately.

Pulpous fruits should be sent in weak alcohol at 18° in acetic or pyro-liqueous acid dissolved in water, or in water saturated in marine salt, if these two first liquids can not be had, for the preservation of objects is much less certain and less perfect in this fluid. Each kind should be put in a separate jar and envelopped in cloth, flax or cotton, or if several kinds are put in the same jar, each kind should be put in separate bags with special labels.

Among the pulpy fruits that deserve to be collected, we shall particulary point out those of several palms, many of the Bromiliacees, resembling the ananas, aroidees, sapotees, and Diospyrees; several annonacees, the pulpy-fruited Capparidees, Papayers, the soft-fruited Cucurbitacees, Guthifers, Aurantiees.

It is desirable that flowers too delicate or too pulpy to be easily analysed when dry should be, also, sent in flasks of weak alcohol or acetic acid much weakened with water; such are those of the Orchides, Balisiers, Aroïdes, Asclepiades, and all other plants difficult to preserve in herbals. It is important to tie on the flask a label marked with the name of the plant, or at least, a number corresponding to that which bears in the herbal the sample of the plant to which the sample belongs. Labels on jars frequently falling off, it would be best to mark these jars with paint, or to put in each jar a bit of wood or parchment bearing the number, or a label written with crayon or ink, if the objects are in alcohol, or on thin pieces of lead marked with a knife. When several plants are put in the same jar, a label, thus marked, should be attached to each. Without this precaution, the collection is useless. Flowers of the different species should not be put in the same viol. If it is ever necessary, a label should be attached to each. Or they should be put in paper pasted together, with the necessary specifications on the envelope.

If there is neither viol nor alcohol, the flowers may be dried in the air without pressing, and then folded in paper and labelled; care should be taken to put them up, so that there may be no danger of pressure.

Entire specimens in flower and fruit of parasites with their roots and the root in which they are imbedded should be preserved in alcohol, or vinegar, or salt-water. Males and females of these plants, in which the sexes are generally separated, should be collected. These plants are generally remarkable for the absence of leaves, for their pulpy consistence and creeping character.

Herbals and fruits, when perfectly dry, should be put in tin, or, at least, well painted boxes so as to be beyond the reach of mice or insects.

Leaves of paper containing plants, should be well pressed together in packets and placed between two sheets of plain paper, before being put in boxes.

In packing up, several samples may be placed between each leaf of paper, and the number of leaves placed between be lessened, if necessary; the packets should always be well pressed together. Any kind of paper is good for packing; bananas or any large-leafed plant can replace it; it is only necessary that the plants should be arranged with care, so as to give an equal thickness to the packets in all their parts.

If there is time the specimens should be preserved by plunging the dry plant in an alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate (15 to 20 grammes for a litre of alcohol at 36°), or to rub it with a pencil, then to dry it in a leaf of paper, which requires but a few instants. With this precaution, all the specimens sent may be preserved; and for not making use of it, several parcels of plants have arrived damaged by insects.

If the plants are fumigated with sulphur, they will be preserved from insects for a long time.

Among those sent, there will be many we have received before; but they will not be useless.

Plants preserved in herbals, which we already possess, will be employed in forming special herbals for different countries, very useful for the study of botanical geography and to facilitate the researches of travellers, either by making exchanges, with foreign museums, or to enrich the principal museum of the departments.

Besides, there are always objects that corrupt by time, which it is useful to renew.

Collections of plants, from whatever country they come, have always a certain number of plants which the museum does not possess, or offers them in a different state from those we possess and so are always interesting, when well made; but there are countries little known, from which we desire to receive all that can be collected.

The North-America: the Floridas and southern parts of Louisiana, Arkanzas and Texas, a great part of Mexico, particulary the northen part, as well as California, the southern part of Mexico, and the countries comprehended between that state and the isthmus of Panama; the great iles of the Antilles, Haïti, Cuba and Jamaïca, though formerly explored, are now scarcely represented in our herbals.

Botany is already cultivated with success in many countries. Travellers can, sometimes, find herbals already collected; it would be useful to procure them, especially if they have but a short time to stay or even a single season, after assuring themselves that these herbals are made with care. This would be important, especially in countries where the flora has been treated by some resident botanist, and the kinds and species proper to these local floras should, if possible, be obtained.

_Collections of wooden stalks or trunks of trees_.

This collection should be made in a different manner, for the trunks of the _monocotyledons_ and ferns, and for those of the _dicotyledons_. For the first, such as the palms, vaquois or pandamas, the dracoena or dragoniers and the ferns in trees, etc. whose structure varies in height according to the age of the trees, it would be desirable to obtain grown and entire trunks, from the root to the top of the tree, when transportation can be affected without difficulty or expense. But when the size of the trunks and difficulties of transportation are so great that it can not be conveyed entire, it should be sent in three pieces of 50 centimetres each in length, taken, the first at the base with the roots, the second in the middle, and the third from the top with the first clusters of leaves. When the trunks are very large, damp and hard to dry, it is well, to quicken their drying, to split them lengthwise through the middle, but the two halves should always be sent and round pieces cut cross wise from 6 to 10 centimetres thick.

For the dycotelodons vegetables one of the principal trunks or a perfectly healthy branch should be taken, and a portion of it 40 or 50 centimetres long preserved; the size best suited for samples is from 10 to 20 centimetres in diameter. Generally the age of the trunk or branch should be such as to have at the same time perfect wood and pulp; for the kinds of wood used for building, it is necessary that the samples should be taken from trunks large enough to give an idea of the physical qualities of the woods. The samples should be sent with the bark entire. If there is danger that they do not dry well and shrink, they should be sawed lengthwise, at some distance from the pith, so that it may remain perfect on one of the pieces, and even in that case, it is well to send, besides the two halves of wood sawed lengthwise, an entire round of from 5 to 6 centimetres thick.

All these samples of trunks whether monocotyledons or dicotyledons, should not be boxed or sent off before they are perfectly dry. They should until then be kept as much as possible far from insects. It is indispensable to give interest to these samples of wood, to label them with numbers corresponding with samples of branches with leaves and flowers or fruits dried botanically, so that they can be determined with precision.

These numbers should be written on the edge wood cut very plain, either with ink or black crayon, or, better, with paint. When the samples are few, they can be notched or marked with Roman characters cut deep in the wood. It is very important either in the catalogues or in the labels of the samples in the herbals to write the common names which the trees bear, in the country where the samples were gathered, as these names are more generally known for the great vegetables than for the little plants; and by this precaution new information can be more easily obtained concerning the trees.

After having indicated the manner of making collections we shall now go on to particularise the vegetables whose trunks we especially desire to obtain.

The collection of the museum is already rich in trunks of arborescent fern. Yet it possesses but very few of those which do not belong to the tribe of Cyathees, such as the Diplazium, Dicksonia, Lomaria, Angiopteris.

Among the woods of the dicotyledonous trees, we shall place, in the first rank all the woods employed in the arts and particularly in cabinet-making and dying; woods which we receive only in the state in which commerce brings them to us and which it would be very interesting to have complete with their pith and bark and especially with a branch in flower or fruit preserved in herbal which facilitates the determination of their scientific appellation. With the exception of a small number of woods of Brazil, which we have received in this manner, we have every thing to ask in this respect from Brazil as well as from Guyana and the Antilles, and samples suited to clear up the history different sorts of cabinet woods, fron woods, pallissander, yellow woods, etc. would be of great interest. We shall cite, besides, the wood of the fig-tree sycomore of Egypt, employed by the ancient Egyptians, those of the Meliacees or Cedrelacees of India, that of the Flindersia of New Holland.

Under the point of view of vegetable anatomy, the other trees, which do not furnish woods employed in the arts, are not less interesting, and all should be collected; but the branches need not be so large, say from 8 to 10 centimetres in diameter. The countries which have not yet added anything to the collection, and in which are to be found the objects that we want, are in the ancient continent, Arabia, Persia, but, above all, China, Cochinchina and the great isles of Asia; New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, whose vegetation is peculiar and from which we have as yet scarce a single sample of wood; Senegal, the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar and Abyssinia: in the New Continent, Mexico and California, Peru, Colombia and the Magellan. In these different localities, should be procured not only specimens of wood from large trees, but the principal stalks of shrubs and of the great ligneous plants which never obtain the same size in our climate. But among the dicotyledonous vegetables there is none that merit the attention of naturalists as the creeping ligneous plants known as so much lianes. Almost all these plants present a remarkable structure, more or less anomalous, which may throw a light on the mode of increase and nourishment of vegetables. Samples of these fruits, collected by MM. Gaudichaud, Perrottet, Guillemin, Melinon, have already suggested valuable ideas. But there are yet many gaps to fill up, and persons living in warm countries could supply us with important documents, by collecting not only portions of all these plants but by sending pieces if the stalks of sufficient size taken from the foot of the oldest trees with the roots of younger trunks; young branches of from one to two years old and branches with leaves and flowers dried botanically. The essential point would be for each kind to have the succession of its different ages from the branches of the first year with their leaves, flowers and fruits up to the oldest trunks; and the samples should be easily gathered when the great trees are cut down in the forest, round which twine these parasites. The common names which they bear in their country should be marked with care both for the creepers and the trees as well as the virtues ascribed to them, and the uses to which they are applied. It is essential for most of the parasites, even when they are not of large size, and especially of those which contain much water, like the trunks of the Cissus, to cut directly pieces some centimetres thick, as their organisation is better preserved than that of the larger trunks.

All the different pieces coming from one trunk should be labelled with the same number.

_Production of vegetables._

We comprehend under this designation all the parts of vegetables or products of the vegetable kingdom, which are of sufficient interest to merit collection; such as vegetable fibre employed in the fabrication of tissues or cordages; natural tissues coming from the preparation of the bark of trees; paper, made directly from certain plants; starches, with the starch prepared at the place where the plant grows, tubercles root, branches and seeds from which it is extracted; gums, sugars, resins, vegetable wax, and other concrete sugars elaborated by vegetables; dye stuffs; besides, roots, barks, leaves or fruit, used either in medicine or the industrial arts.

It is essential, as much as possible, to join to these objects, with a label of the same number, a sample in a herbal of the plants which produce them; and to give the common name both of the plant and the stuff used, and the uses to which it is applied.

Samples gathered with these precautions in the countries where these products are developed would be interesting even for the objects which generally arrive in Europe through commerce; for, in great number of cases, the origin of these stuffs is obscure, the distinction of their kind and different qualifies very difficult, and many of them are adulterated by falsifications or secondary preparations.

It would be well to send a sufficient quantity of each of these stuffs for certain experiments which may be judged interesting; from one to two kilogrammes would generally be a suitable quantity.

The stuffs that are liable to be attacked by insects should by placed, well dried, in boxes, bottles or earthern jars perfectly sealed.

_Specimens relating to vegetable anatomy and physiology._--Many objects useful for extending the study of these branches of botany are comprehended in the collections of trunks, fruits and dried plants which we have already particularised; we recommend here, under this special tittle, the collection of samples which would show the deviation from the usual structure of vegetables, or those which must be preserved in a particular manner in order to be submitted to observation. Such are:

1º The results of experiments tried, frequently, for a different end, on vegetables which do not grow in Europe--

Thus trunks of the palm trees on which are made notches or perforations to extract the sweet sap that oozes from them.

The trunks of Dragoniers (Drocoena) on which should have been practised these punctures for a time more or less remote.

Examples of punctures more or less entirely grown over on the trees whose wood is very different from that of indigenous trees, such as the very soft woods of Baobab, the Papayers, and on the very hard woods as iron wood, ebon, etc.

2º The excrescences and other anomalies of the developement of these woods, by knowing exactly the tree on which they have been observed or gathered.

3º The parasitical plants inserted on the trunks or roots, which bear them, such as the loranthus, viscum, and other parasites on the branches, the Rafflesia hyduora, balanophara on the roots; these samples, showing the parasitical plants still fixed on a portion of the plant which nourishes them, ought to be preserved dry for the ligneous species, in alcohol, for the herbaceous or pulpy species.

4º Monstruosities or anomalies of structure of flowers or exotic fruits, preserved in alcohol.

_Fossil vegetables._--The collections of this kind at the museum (for several years) have greatly increased, and the researches of travellers and correspondents of the establishments will soon give them still more importance. Up to this present time, these collections comprehend, almost entirely, the fossil vegetables of Europe; yet it is known that the soils that produce them are found in the most remote parts of the world, and the comparison of fossils coming from great distance would be of great interest for geological theories. Thus, coal-land, so rich in fossil plants in Europe, is excavated at a great number of points in North America, in the East Indies, in China, and New-Holland, and is found, without doubt, in other places; the mines of the United States have been worked with care for the fossils which they contain, and have already supplied our galleries with numerous specimens.

It must not be forgotten that to classify exactly these fossils considerable number of specimens is frequently necessary and that a collection of the varieties found together in the same soil is often one of the most important results; that consequently, especially in distant localities, the greatest number of specimens possible should be collected and sent.

Specimens should especially be procured which present the stamps of leaves entire and perfectly marked, the trunks which show still the carbonised bark which covered them, and the impression of the insertions of the leaves that it bore, besides characterised fruits, such as those analogous to the cones of the pines, the fruits of the palm trees, etc.

Coal-land, although more rich, in general, than any other in vegetable fossils, is not the only one which contains them; the secondary formation, and the tertiary present also numerous impressions of leaves, of branches, of flowers even and of fruits, whose succession at different epochs of formation, and comparative structure in various countries of the world is not less interesting. Their acquisitions cannot be too strongly recommended; but it is necessary, as much as possible, to join to these fossils, the animal fossils which may accompany them, which will better tend to determine the epoch of the formation of the deposit which contains them.

There is still another class of vegetable fossils which, in later times, has acquired more importance than has been given to them before; they are petrified woods which by a new process of preparation, permit to study their interior organisation, and to compare them to living woods; these woods are found in the deposits of every epoch, and in countries the farthest separated. They belong to families and classes very different; thus their examination is very important. It should be recommended to persons, who encounter them, to collect them with great care, in choosing pieces which appear to differ, not so much by their exterior form as by their interior structure.

It is not necessary to send large samples of the characteristics which distinguish them as regards their interior structure and especially for the dicotyledonous woods with concentric layers; it is best, on the contrary, to break them neatly with the hammer and to reduce them about 1 decimetre cube. The only large pieces which ought to be preserved are those of the monocotyledons, which as the woods of palms and the woods which would be analogous to the trunks of the tree ferns, for there it is necessary, as much as possible, to have the trunk entire from the centre to the surface and in length of 2 to 3 decimetres. Among places where the most remarkable and varied fossil woods have been found, we would cite the little Antilles, above all Antigua, Saint-Lucy and the Martinique. The museum possesses but few specimens from these places.

All the specimens of fossil plants, which may be addressed to the museum, should be wrapped with care, in two or three papers; those which have delicate impressions should be covered in their face with cotton or lint, above all if the rock or stone is tender; if the samples are thin and fragile, as often arrives with impressions upon slates, they should be placed in separate boxes. The boxes should be proportionate to the size of the samples, so as to be filled compactly that they may not be shaken in transportation; fossil should not be put in the same case whith dried plants or glass cases. Without these precautions the samples would rub and the impressions be effaced.