Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/541

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AN HERBARIUM.
511

are pasted, as the spirit extracts a yellow dye from many plants, and stains the paper. A few drops of this solution should be mixed with the glue used for pasting. This application not only destroys or keeps off all vermin, but it greatly revives the colours of most plants, giving the collection a most pleasing air of freshness and neatness. After several years' experience, I can find no inconvenience from it whatever, nor do I see that any dried plants can long be preserved without it.

The herbarium is best kept in a dry room without a constant fire. Linnæus had a stone building for his museum, remote from his dwelling-house, into which, I have been told, neither fire nor candle was ever admitted, yet nothing can be more free than his collection from the injuries of dampness, or other causes of decay.