preserving flowers and leaves

[DR_GROSS]

          I don't know the answer to the question about the sand
          method, but I too have struggled with the problem of wanting
          to use flowers during the off-season, especially since
          we teach botany,  and the botanical part of
          introductory biology, during the spring (or should I say
          winter?) semester.  Part of my solution has been to put
          digital images of flowers on my own web pages.

          http://www.georgian.edu/bi_pines/bi_pb_nj.htm

           The advantages of this method include its
          permanency, lack of damage flowers will suffer from
          handling, 24-hr, year-round accessibility to students
          (IF, and it's a big if, they can access a networked
          computer), and pretty good color preservation.   The
          disadvantages include the lack of being able to touch the
          flowers or get a 3-D perspective (there's NOTHING like the
          real thing, live!).

          Mike Gross, Ph.D.
          Chairperson, Biology Dept.
          Georgian Court College
          Lakewood, NJ  08701-2697

          gross at georgian.edu