In drying the specimens, great care is required, that they may preserve well their natural appearance, form, and color. It is generally recommended that they be carefully spread out, as nearly in their natural position as possible, between eight or ten thicknesses of paper, and then submitted to pressure between the boards. The degree of pressure should never be such as to crush their parts, and may be easily regulated by the screw, or by the number and size of the weights used. Cotton-batting may be used to equalize the pressure. As often as once a day they should be taken from the press, transferred to fresh and dry paper, and returned, until they are thoroughly dried, when they are ready to be transferred to the cabinet. The true secret of preserving specimens with all their colors is to extract the moisture from them by pressure in an abundance of dry, bibulous paper as soon as possible. The next object with the collector is the arrangement of his specimens. For this purpose each one is first to be fastened to a sheet of firm white paper, about ten by eighteen inches, either by glue or with loops of paper of the same kind, or they may be stitched to the paper with a fine needle. The latter mode, if done skillfully, is preferable. Then let all those specimens which belong to the same genus be collected together and placed within a folded sheet of colored paper, with the name of the genus and each species written on the outside. Each sheet should also be labeled with the names of the plants, the locality, time of gathering, habits, etc., etc. The genera are next to be collected together into orders, each order being wrapped or folded in a still larger sheet, of a different color from that which enfolds the genera, having the name of the order with a catalogue of its genera on the outside. Thus arranged, the orders are to be laid away upon the shelves of a cabinet, or packed in a chest. To protect the plants from the attack of insects pieces of camphor gum are to be laid among them, or a piece of sponge saturated with the oil of turpentine. To save them from decay they should be kept dry and well ventilated. Fruits and seeds which are too large to be pressed with the plants, and also truncheons of wood, are to be pressed separately in a cabinet. In the above I have closely followed the directions of Professor Wood in his excellent work on Botany, which would prove a profitable pastime for those desiring to improve their knowledge in this direction. H. A. P. WESSBERGE. DIOGENES IN HIS TUB. Diogenes in this desires to call the attention of all readers of THE PRAIRIE FARMER to what he deems a very important subject and a great wrong—one to which they have heretofore seemed strangely indifferent.