Such a portfolio is easily prepared with two sheets of millboard connected by an endless tape, so as to be easily slung over the shoulder; between these about thirty or forty sheets (60 to 80 folds) of thin soft (more or less bibulous) paper may be carried and kept in place by a strap or piece of twine. With two such portfolios a traveller can carry as many plants as it is possible to collect with advantage in a day. As soon as possible after being gathered, the specimens should be laid roughly between the sheets of paper: except in the case of delicate flowers, no special care is needed, and no harm comes of two or three being put together. [Illustration] 3. _The Drying Press._—The great object, both to secure good specimens and to save labour and weight of paper, is to get the plants dried quickly, and for this one of the first conditions is to lose as little time as possible. When practicable, the specimens should always be put in the press on the same day on which they are gathered. The press should be made with two outer gratings of iron wire; the outer frame of strong wire, about a quarter of an inch in diameter—the size being that of the paper used. Between these the paper is laid. As to the choice of drying paper, the general rule is, that the coarser it is the better, provided it be quite or nearly quite free from size. To enable the plants to dry quickly, the traveller should be provided with light wooden gratings of the same size as the drying paper. I think the size 18 inches × 12 inches is quite large enough. The iron wire outer gratings may with advantage be a quarter of an inch longer and broader to save the edges of the wooden gratings. [Illustration] [Illustration: GRATING SEEN FROM THE EDGE.] [Illustration: GRATING SEEN FROM ABOVE.] These should be made of light laths fastened with a few nails (all the better if these are of copper), the interstices should be rather less than three-quarters of an inch, at all events not more. Their use is to allow the air to circulate through the pile of plants that are being dried. One should be inserted at each interval of about two inches (counting the drying paper and the plants laid out for drying), and when this is done the parcel may with advantage be exposed to the sun or placed near a fire, as the case may be. In dry warm climates, the majority of plants may be dried in the course of a few days, and will be fit to pack up, without any need of changing the drying paper in which they were originally placed; but in damp weather, and in regard to plants of thick fleshy foliage, it is usually necessary to change the paper more than once before the specimens are thoroughly dry.