Pick your fern leaf down close to the root-stock, including a portion of
that also, if it can be spared. Place your fronds between newspaper sheets
and lay "dryers" over them (blotting paper or other absorbent paper). Cover
with a board or slat frame, and lay on this a weight of several pounds,
leaving it for twenty-four hours; if the specimens are not then cured,
change the dryers. Mount the prepared specimens on white mounting sheets.
The regulation size is 16-1/2 by 11-1/2 inches. The labels are usually
3-3/4 by 1-3/4 inches. A sample will suggest the proper inscription.

HERBARIUM OF JOHN DOE
_Ophioglóssum vulgatum_, L.
(Adder's Tongue)
Willoughby Lake, Vt.
August 19, 1911. Wet meadow.
Coll. X.Y.Z. Rather common
but often overlooked

Place the label at the lower right-hand corner of the sheet, which is now
ready to be laid in the genus cover, usually of manila paper 16-1/2 by 12
inches.

It is well to jot down important memoranda at the time of collecting. This
is the method in use at the Gray Herbarium in Cambridge. It can, of course,
be modified to suit one's own taste or convenience. The young collector can
begin by simply pressing his specimens between the leaves of a book,
the older and coarser the better; and he can mount them in a blank book
designed for the purpose, or if he has only a common blank book, he can cut
out some of the leaves, alternately with others left in place, as is often
done with a scrap book, that when the book is full it may not be crowded at
the back. Or he can use sheets of blank paper of any uniform size and mount