Preserving glass flowers and saving seeds

Conservation in the gallery of glass flowers Step into the glass flowers exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History , and you'll be stunned. The 4,300 intricate glass models that represent 780 species—including orchids, pitcher plants, rhododendrons, and banana flowers—are scientifically accurate and astonishingly lifelike. Created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the father-and-son glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, these models were used to teach botany classes but were also available for the general public to view. When they were introduced, "the public went bananas," says Scott Fulton, conservator of the exhibit. Maintaining this one-of-a-kind collection is no easy task. The early models were made of clear glass and held together by wire armature. The Blaschkas then applied a layer of animal glue onto the glass surface before painting the models. Without this glue, the paint would run off, Fulton tells Newscripts. But these adhesives