THE ANIMAL LIFE OF THE GROUP. 501 



assortment of bottles and containers of odd sizes. A good quantity of old 

 newspapers will also be useful. A lens, a stout knife, a pair of forceps, and a 

 wading costume that protects the ai-nis and legs from the sun are very important 

 parts of the field equipment, but nothing is more necessary than a pair of stout 

 shoes to protect the feet when wading over the rocks on the rough coral reef. 



The Hawaiian tides are so uniform and slow that there is no danger to be 

 feared from their sudden return, so the collector can work in safety and at his 

 leisure, always taking time to gather the finest specimens to be found in the 

 given locality. A little practice with the lens will enable the beginner to 

 discover the fruiting bodies on the different alga;. If they ever attempt the 

 task of naming their specimens, the importance of having perfect specimens 

 will be appreciated ; still, an imperfect example is not to be despised, since it 

 will be of value in giving a clue to the nature of the flora of a given locality. 



The specimens may be roughly dried in a shady place or salted down, or, 

 better still, mounted and pressed while they are fresh. To do this the plants 

 should be carefully washed and sorted in sea water, as they retain their colors 

 better than when washed in fresh water. 



The next step is to "float out" the specimen in fresh or salt water on a 

 piece of substantial, tough, unglazed paper of the proper size. Several methods 

 of "floating out" the specimens may be employed. A good way is to take a 

 shallow dish or enameled pan and lay in the bottom a square piece of gal- 

 vanized iron that is a trifle smaller than the pan. If the corners of this 

 mounting table are turned down so as to make legs a quarter to a half inch 

 long, the apparatus will work much better. 



Place the floating table in the pan and cover it with water and lay upon 

 it a piece of mounting paper that lias been moistened on both sides. The 

 specimen to be mounted is then laid on the paper and held in place with the 

 left hand, while with the right hand, needle points and tweezers are used to 

 smooth the branches of the specimen out on the paper. The specimen, mount- 

 ing table and all, is then gently lifted out of the water and the card laid to 

 one side to drain. When the paper is fairly dry, the specimen and its mounting 

 sheet is placed on a sheet of blotting paper, a piece of thin muslin cloth, free 

 from starch, spread over it and a second dryer laid over the cloth. The speci- 

 mens are piled up in this way, one on top of the other, until the lot is finished, 

 when they are placed between two flat boards, to which a little weight is 

 added, and left to dry thoroughly. Specimens that do not adhere to the 

 mounting sheet may be fastened in place with narrow strips of gummed paper. 



The collector will soon learn that alga?, like land plants, favor certain 

 localities, and moreover that they have their special seasons of growth. So 

 that to gather all of the attached or fixed alga? *^ in a given locality will require 

 many expeditions over the same locality at different seasons. It is not im- 

 probable that almost every collecting ground would yield as many as fifty 



*^ For there are many microscoijical species that are free swimming plants 



