HALF AN HOUR WITH SEAWEEDS. 49 



as to prevent air-bubbles forming on the surface, 

 otherwise the subsequent treatment will cause the 

 paper to be raised into folds and wrinkles. Having 

 prepared the paper to receive your seaweeds, next 

 draw the latter gently over it, with the root-end 

 towards yourself. Then, by means of a smooth, 

 blunt needle, you will be able to keep the stem and 

 fronds from being entangled. Here you will be 

 obliged to use your own experience and judgment as 

 to their natural position, and the angle at which 

 they ramified from each other when living. The 

 large branches should be laid out in this manner 

 first, after which proceed to arrange the minor ones. 

 If this process be done deliberately and without 

 precipitation, the tiniest and smallest of the branches 

 and filaments may be arranged in their proper 

 places. No fingers are so well fitted for this delicate 

 operation as those of a lady, and we have never yet 

 seen seaweeds whose arrangement for skill and 

 taste could compare with those of the gentler sex. 

 But when carefully mounted and properly named, 

 few objects look better, or are fitter for presents. 

 To look over an album of well and neatly-arranged 

 seaweeds is a genuine treat, and even the most 

 indifferent admirer of nature will here be forced to 

 pay his tribute of admiration. There is something 

 great as well as pretty in the presence of these 

 " flowers of the sea." Just as the land vegetation 

 exhales the gas absolutely necessary to terrestrial 

 animals, and, at the same time, furnishes them with 



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