116 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



short time, to the air, or if allowed to become fnassed together witli 

 plants of coarser texture. The cooler such delicate species are kept 

 the Letter ; and too many ought not to be crowded together in the 

 same bottle, as crowding encourages decomposition ; and when this 

 has be2;un, it spreads with fearful rapidity. These Algfe should be 

 kept in sea-water until they can be arranged for drying, and the more 

 rapidly they are prepared the better. Many will not keep, even in 

 vessels of sea-water, from one day to another. 



A common botanist's vasculum, or an India-rubber cloth bag, will 

 serve to bring home the larger and less membranous or gelatinous 

 kinds ; but even these, if left long unsorted, become clotted together, 

 and suffer proportionably. 



In gathering Algie from their native places, the whole plant should 

 be plucked from the very base, and if there be an obvious root, it 

 should be left attached. Young collectors are apt to pluck branches 

 or mere scraps of the larger Algffi, which often afford no just notion 

 of the mode of growth or natural habit of the j^lant from which they 

 have been snatched, and are often insufficient for the first purpose of 

 a specimen^ that of ascertaining the plant to which it belongs. In 

 many of the leafy Fucoid plants, (Sargassa, &c.) the leaves that grow 

 on the lower and on the upper branches are quite different, and were 

 a lower and an upper branch plucked from the same root, they might 

 be so dissimilar as to pass for portions of different species. It is very 

 necessary, therefore, to gather, when it can be done, the tvhole plard, 

 including the root. It is quite true that the large kinds may be judi- 

 ciously divided ; but tlie young collector had better aim at selecting 

 moderately sized specimens of the entire plant, than attempt the 

 division of large specimens, unless he keep in view this maxim : every 

 botanical specimen should be an ejDitome of the essential marks 'of a 

 species. 



Several duplicate- specimens of every kind should always be pre- 

 served, and particularly where the species is a variable one. Very 

 many Alga3 vary in the comparative breadth of the leaves, and in the 

 degree of branching of the stems ; and when such varieties are noticed, 

 a considerable series of specimens is often requisite to connect a broad 

 and a narrow form of the same species. A neglect of this care leads 

 to endless mistakes in the after work of identification of species, and 

 has been the cause of burdening our systems with a troublesome num- 

 ber of synonymes. 



Where it is the collector's object to preserve Alga? in the least 

 troublesome manner, and in a rough state, to be afterwards laid out 

 and prepared for pressing at leisure, the specimens fresh from the sea 

 are to be spread out and left to dry in an airy, but not too sunny, sit- 

 uation. They are not to be washed or rinsed in fresh water, nor is 

 their natural moisture to be squeezed from them. The more loosely 

 and thinly they are spread out the better, and in dry weather they 

 will be sufficiently dry after a few hours' exposure to allow of pack- 

 ing. In a damp state of the atmosphere the drying process will oc- 

 cupy some days. No other preparation is needed, and they may be 

 loosely packed in paper bags or boxes, a ticket of the exact locality 

 being affixed to each parcel. Such specimens will shrink very con- 



