Drying herbarium specimens slowly or rapidly

The preparation of good herbarium plant material involves much care and labor, and even artistic sense. There is a best way from the time the branch or plant is selected and gathered, through its arrangement of stems, leaves, flowers, and perhaps fruit, prior to pressing and subsequent drying in the plant press. Some collectors make excellent specimens, and take a real pride in good work; others are hurried and careless in all their work from beginning to end. Since a specimen is intended to serve as a permanent and authentic record of actual material, to be used for reference and comparison in future studies for many years, the longer it retains its original likeness as an undamaged dried specimen in spite of subsequent handling and study, the more satisfactory it has proven to be.