ADVERTISEMENT. IX 



surface of the water, and gently and carefully drawn out, so as 

 not to disarrange the branches of the specimen. A forceps, a 

 porcupine's quill, or a knitting-needle, or any fine-pointed instru- 

 ment, will assist the operator in displaying the branches and 

 keeping them apart while the plant is being lifted from the 

 w^ater ; and should any small branch become matted in removal, 

 it may be set to rights by dropping a little water from a spoon 

 upon it, and assisting the natural opening of the branchlets with 

 the forceps or quill. 



The specimen, as now displayed on a piece of wet white paper, 

 is to be placed on a sheet of soaking-paper, and other specimens 

 placed beside it, till the sheet be covered. A piece of thin calico 

 or muslin, as large as the sheet of soaking-paper, is then spread 

 over the wet specimens. More soaking-paper, and another layer 

 of specimens covered with a cotton rag, are laid over the first ; 

 and thus a pile of alternate soaking-paper, specimens, and rags 

 is gradually raised. This pile or bundle is then placed between 

 a pair of flat boards, a weight put on it, and it is left for some 

 hours. It must then be examined, the wet soaking-papers re- 

 moved and dry ones substituted ; but the cotton rags may be 

 allowed to adhere to the face of the specimens until the latter are 

 perfectly dry, when they will come off without trouble, even from 

 the most gelatinous kinds. After two or three changes of soak- 

 ing-papers, the specimens will be sufficiently dried, and will in 

 most cases adhere firmly to the white papers on which they have 

 been displayed, and are then ready for the Herbarium. 



After a few trials the process, which it has taken more time 

 to describe than it occupies in practice, will be readily learned. 

 The great majority of the Marine Algse are easily preserved, and 

 make very pretty objects for an amateur collection. When once 

 dried, if kept in a dry place, they will last for ever, and when it 

 is desired to examine a portion of a dried specimen microscopi- 

 cally, a minute fragment may be moistened, and placed moist on 

 the table of the microscope. The more translucent kinds do not 

 require dissection ; but to see the structure of the opake frond, 



