HOW TO KNOW THE SEAWEEDS 



In the preparation of the marine algae herbarium it will be found 

 necessary to provide for the storage of several different kinds of 

 preservations. The fleshy species which lend themselves to pressing 

 and mounting on herbarium sheets may be handled in the same way 

 as are terrestrial plants. Those which have adhered well to backing 

 sheets during the drying process may be mounted by pasting to stan- 

 dard herbarium sheets. Tin paste or standard herbarium paste should 

 be used. Rubber cement, plastic cement, staples, etc., are not satis- 

 factory. Coarser specimens which are dried free of backing may be 

 fixed to herbarium sheets by means of paste or by strips of gummed 

 cloth. When the herbarium label, (Fig. 6) properly inscribed, has been 

 pasted to the lower right hand corner of the sheet the plant is ready 

 for filing. If portions of the specimen have been retained in Hquid 

 preservative, this should be indicated somewhere on the sheet for fu- 

 ture reference. 



Fig. 6. A Sample Algal Specimen Label. 



Liquid preserved specimens usually may be kept in dilute formalin 

 for months or a few years without difficulty, but for long periods of 

 time 65 to 70% ethyl alcohol seems to be more satisfactory. A con- 

 venient procedure is to keep the small bits of preserved material in 4 

 dram shell vials in the one-gross boxes in which they are sold. They 

 may be cross-referenced (indexed) on the herbarium sheets by means 

 of reference to consecutive numbers written on the corks. More per- 

 manent filing of these is accomplished by placing them within air 

 tight, glass capped, pint mason jars. 



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