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:
[Illustration: boxes.
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.