Janet Baraclough.. wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:


An old lady I knew way back had a pill-box made of the two halves
of
an orange peel: it looked just like leather. Try that with a
banana-skin! Perhaps these bygone Italian souvenirs were the
origin
of the myth.

Pomanders made out of whole oranges last ages too; because the
skin
is preserved (with rubbed-in alum, possibly). Maybe you could make
a
banana skin into a pomander, or something more useful, if you
really
tried.

Haud me back, as they say in Glasgow.

I wasn't going to go on about this, but actually I did try to make
one of the orange-peel boxes (I was an inquisitive boy). I smoothed
the two halves over some kind of former and put them to dry.
Shape-wise, it was a failure; but they did dry very nicely, and it
was clear that they would have lasted quite as long as pressed
flowers do in ordinary household conditions. I don't think they need
a preservative. I'd love to think of a rather cleverer urgler taking
on the project and succeeding.

Mike.