or anything on each picture, to keep it steady; then with a pencil draw a line round the outside rim of each. When all have been treated in the same way, remove the first, and cut with scissors along the pencil-line, and replace in its original position, and so on until they are all done. Begin to stick them on the screen in the same fashion, and the result will be a perfectly smooth surface, which, when varnished, will look exceedingly well.

Finish off the screen with a colored stamped leather round the edges of the panels, a row of brass nails, and a couple of embossed brass handles to lift it up by when wanted to be moved.

It will be best to let an upholsterer varnish it, as it is a difficult process for an amateur. It should have two coats of white size first, and then two of white varnish, when it will allow of the pictures being cleaned with a wet rag.

Feather Screens.

Screens and fans in feathers are both pleasant and ornamental work.

To make a screen, begin as follows: Mould a piece of wire into the shape of a heart, and cover this, by means of a needle and thread, with dark colored gauze or tarlatane. Round the edge of this frame fasten a row of peacocks' feathers with gum. A very little gum put under the quills, and left to dry with a weight on them, will make them easily adhere. Place a second row of feathers, so that the eyes of them come just between those of the first row. Next make another frame in the same manner as before, only let the edge of it only extend as far as the quills of the second row of feathers. Border this with the side fringe feathers of the peacock's tail, and then dispose of some red ones at the top, or any kind fancy may dictate or you possess, finishing off with a bunch of gray fluff feathers, or a knot of crimson ribbon and a gilt handle. For the back, cut a piece of cardboard the exact shape and size of the founda tion of the screen, cover it with crimson silk, and gum on behind. Another even prettier screen is made as follows, both sides alike:

Prepare a frame-circular in shape-as before, edge it thickly all round, by means of a needle and thread, with the fringe feathers of the peacock's tai!. Then put alternately in the six spaces, between the points of the star, rows of the small brown, gold, and green feathers from the neck and back of the bird. Cut out a star in cardboard, edge it on each side with a small red feather, and cover the whole of the rest-by means of gum-one close over the other, with the bright blue feathers from the peacock's breast. Cut out a small circle in cardboard, which edge with a row of canary bird or any dyed yellow feathers, letting the centre be scarlet. On this a gold monogram in repoussé work may be placed. A gilt handle and knot of ribbon completes so elegant a fan that one made for a wedding present was supposed to be the finest Brazilian work.

Mats made of cloth or straw are very pretty with a border of feathers. These may also be utilized for trimmings of hats, muffs, or jackets, particularıy

heasants' and pea-fowls'. Trimmings are made by sewing the fe..thers on in rows of three and two, or three and four, one over the other, on a narrow ribbon of the same color.

Collecting and Preserving Plants.

A collection of dried plants is not only very useful and instructive, but care and neatness in the execution may make such a collection very pretty. Such collections are usually called a Herbarium, and every American botanist is ambitious to possess a herbarium of American plants. For such a purpose a few plain rules and instructions are all that is necessary, provided a good will is ready for the work.

Having resolved upon forming a collection, it will be prudent to prepare the tools beforehand, and these should consist of a pocket-lens, a tin box or vascu lum, such as a japanned sandwich-box.

A few quires of paper of a spongy nature, so as to absorb moisture--such as grocers employ for wrapping sugar-will answer the purpose; but the size should be a little larger than that of the paper on which it is purposed ultimately to mount the specimens. A very good size for a sheet, when folded in half, is seventeen inches by eleven inches, or it may be this size and no folded, which is perhaps most convenient. A stout deal board for the top and the bottom, and this also half an inch larger each way than the paper, should be provided. Three or four bricks tied up in brown paper will serve as weights, each brick forming a parcel. This will be all that is really essential until the plants are dried and ready for mounting.

As ferns are very good plants to commence with, and perhaps the easiest of any to preserve, we will apply our remarks to them, and when the method of drying is acquired by experiments upon them, other plants may succeed.

The collection of ferns for transplanting and the collection of fronds for preservation as botanical specimens, are to be pursued at very different periods. of the year. It may be premised that for botanical purposes fronds destitute of fructification are worse than useless, unless they belong to species which produce distinct fertile and barren fronds, and in which the characters and appearance of these fronds materially differ. In such cases the two kinds of fronds should be collected and preserved together.

The period for collecting ferns for the herbarium is, therefore, manifestly that when the fructification has nearly attained to maturity, and it is always better to collect them on a dry day than on a very wet one. The collector should go out prepared for collecting ferns, if she desires that her herbarium should present a neat and respectable appearance when completed. Some recommend a vasculum, some a bag, and some a large book under the arm; but commend us to two half-inch deal boards, about eleven inches by seventeen mches, with a strap and buckle for each end, and twenty sheets of good bibuous paper, cut to the same size and placed between them. Having selected a

good frond or two for preservation, taking care not to break the stipe or stalk, but to separate it from the rhizome or root-stock, bend back the stipe just below the lowest leaflets of the frond, breaking the woody portion, but not dividing it from the rest of the frond, and lay it carefully between a sheet of your bibulous paper, and secure it with the spare paper between your boards; then proceed in search of more. Fronds which, with their stalks, are not too long for the paper, should be laid in without bending.

In selecting fronds for preservation, it is not the largest that are required, but it is rather advisable to collect such specimens as will lie comfortably between the papers without bending, than to aim at procuring fine specimens, which may only prove to be a nuisance. A perfect frond of nine inches in length is better than a folded or otherwise mutilated one of nineteen inches. In selecting fronds, the fruit should not be too ripe, or, instead of spores, you will only find empty cases, not to mention the rusty dust that will continually tint your papers. It is better that the spores should be scarcely matured. Then, again, it should be noticed whether the frond is eaten by insects, broken, or in any other way imperfect. Such specimens are to be avoided if others can be obtained. Finally, the specimens selected should be well grown, and not distorted, unsymmetrical, or exhibit a tendency to sporting, or departure from the general type of the neighboring fronds.

Having collected what specimens are required, and conveyed them home, the next process consists of drying them for the herbarium. This is accomplished by removing them from the papers in which they have been collected and transferring them to fresh paper. Some persons are content with a stout unsized paper, such as employed by grocers for wrapping sugar; others will proceed to blotting paper, whilst the majority will admit that Bentall's botanical paper is decidedly the best. The ferns should be transferred to a sheet of drying paper; two or three thicknesses, or even four or five, may be placed upon it, and then another specimen, and thus ad libitum. When all are in this manner transferred, the pile should be placed in a press, or with a stout board above and below, loaded on the top with some heavy weights-stones, bricks, old books, or anything applicable for the purpose. Twenty-four hours at the least, and forty-eight at the most, they should remain unmoved. At the expiration of this period each specimen should be transferred to a dry sheet of paper, with three or four thicknesses of dry paper between each specimen, and again put under pressure for the same period. The damp paper from which the specimens are taken should be at once dried in the sun or before the fire. It is always advisable to change the sheet for each variety. The specimens should be laid on the paper, with the under or fructifying surface uppermost, and the barren side of the frond applied to the paper. Small strips of gummed paper, about one inch in length, and not more than an eighth of an inch in width, should be laid across the principal and secondary ribs or branches of the frond, and each end fastened down to the sheet of paper; other pieces may, in like manner, be placed across

the tips of the fronds, or wherever else appears to be necessary to secure the specimen to the paper. It may be suggested that too many such slips disfigure the specimen, and if there are not sufficient it cannot be retained in its place. Experience must be the best teacher. Some object to fastening the specimens to paper at all, others recommend gluing them down by the whole surface. Both these plans appear to us to be equally objectionable. If the specimens. are loose, they are not only in danger of being broken or damaged, but of being misplaced and dissevered from the label which belongs to them. If wholly glued down, they cannot under many circumstances be removed from the paper, either to be transferred to other paper or for closer examination or comparison.

Each specimen having been mounted, the label which accompanies it should be fastened down beside it. This may be pasted. Finally, its generic and spe cific name should be written legibly at the lower right-hand corner. All the specimens belonging to one genus should then be collected together and placed between the folds of a sheet of paper, half an inch wider and longer when folded than the half-sheets upon which the specimens are mounted. These “genera covers" may be of the same paper, or a smooth brown paper may be employed for the purpose. On the outside of the genera covers, at the lower left-hard corner, the name of the genus should be written in a good bold hand. The whole may be transferred to a deal box, the front of which is movable as well as the lid, being hinged to the bottom, so as to fall down and lie flat on the table. The lid may be so contrived as to hold the front in its place when closed. A deal box, nine inches deep, thirteen inches wide, and twenty inches long, will hold a good collection, and if this ever should prove too small for the number of specimens obtained, a second box of the same dimensions will remedy the evil.

If it is considered desirable, a little camphor may be kept with the specimens, but the best preservative will be to look them all over, and thus allow the air to have access to them, once in every six months. With such precautions a collection may be preserved uninjured for years, provided always that it is kept in a dry place-not moderately, but thoroughly dry-or "mould" may injure irremediably what insects have spared.

A neat little collection of ferns, of smaller pretensions, and less claims to be regarded in a scientific light, may be arranged in a kind of album or scrap-book, with "guards" introduced by the binder sufficient to compensate for the extra thickness caused by the insertion of the specimens. A tinted paper is often used in the manufacture of these books, which good taste may transform into a very interesting volume for the drawing-room table.

In collecting flowering plants it is essential that the plants should be collected when in flower, and, if possible, specimens in fruit should be collected and dried therewith. This will seldom be possible, but a later visit to the same spot may furnish fruiting specimens, which may be dried and placed with the flowering

portion. Wherever the plant is small, or of moderate size, the whole of it, in cluding the root, should be gathered, as this will make the specimens more valuable for reference and comparison, and give a better idea of the plant. If the seeds are being shed, they should be collected and placed in a small envelope, which may be fastened on the sheet beside the plant when it is mounted for the herbarium. Stems which are too thick to lie flat, especially such as are woody, should be pared down at the back with a sharp knife, care being taken not to interfere with the front or exposed portion of the specimen.

CAUTION.-Never omit to place a label with every specimen, stating where it was found, and the date of the month and year in which it was collected. A good collection in all other points is almost valueless if this caution is not regarded.

Never put dried plants away, or enclose them in a box, until thoroughly dry, or they will become mouldy. Take care to keep them, when dry, in a dry place.

Preserved Flowers.

The Preservation of Flowers, in their natural forms and colors, is an entirely new article of trade that has arisen in Germany. Erfurt, the city of nurserymen and florists, excels in manufacturing bouquets, wreaths, floral decorations for rooms, dinner tables, etc., made of such flowers. We are glad that we are enabled to lay before our readers the modus operandi, by translating for them the following article from the "Deutsches Magazin fur Garten und Blumenkunde." First condition: Get a good quantity of fine sand, wash it till all the soluble particles are gone: you can test it by pouring the water off till it looks quite clear; when you are quite sure of the fact, pour the sand on stones or boards placed aslant, so that the water can run off, and let it get dry either by sun or fire-perfectly dry. Then pass the sand through a sieve, so that all dusty particles disappear from it, as there will be such, which washing and drying will not have removed. Then pass it through a coarse sieve, so as to get rid of too large grains. When that is done, your sand shall be a mass of fine particles, of nearly equal size, as is, for instance, the so-called silver sand, used for writing. Keep the sand in a very dry, and, if possible, also in a warm place, that no vitalizing quality may remain in it.

Cut the flowers in a fully developed state, taking care that they are neither wet nor moist by dew, rain, etc. If you cannot obtain them in any other condition, then the following troublesome proceeding will render them dry. Take one or two flowers at a time, and put them into a glass, into which pour just enough water for the ends to stand in; the flower will then dry, and still suck up water enough not to fade.

Next, get a box or pot, or anything large enough to receive your flower or flowers; pour sand enough into it to enable them to stand by themselves, their stems embedded in the sand. And now for that part of the work which calls upon your whole skill and your most delicate fingering. You have to fill up the