Manas wants to prepare a herbarium of plants.  1. What is a herbarium? 

1. Herbarium is a dried plant specimen that is pressed, treated and mounted on a standard size sheet in order to preserve it. 

[Note: Herbarium is a collection of dried, pressed and labelled plant specimens arranged by a classification system.]

2. (i) It is essential to identify and label the collected specimen correctly. 

(ii) Specimens should be stored in a dry place. 

(iii) The plants are usually pressed and mounted on the sheet of paper known as herbarium sheets. Some plants are not suitable for pressing or mounting, like succulents, seeds, cones, etc. They need to be preserved in suitable liquid like formaldehyde, acetic alcohol, etc. 

(iv) In order to preserve the specimen for longer durations, acid-free paper, special glues and inks must be used to mount the specimen so that the specimen does not deteriorate. 

(v) The specimens should be dried well before preparing a herbarium in order to prevent rotting of specimen. 

3. It is also essential to record the date, place of collection along with detailed classification and highlighting with its ecological peculiarities, characters of the plant on a sheet. Local names of plant specimens and name of the collector may be added. This information is given at lower right comer of sheet and is called ‘label’.