290 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
be expanded by damping, may be dried by the traveller without 
pressure, and put up, either each species separately or several 
together, in small canvas or paper bags, carefully marking the place 
of growth and the date when gathered. 
With the specimens, fruits and seeds, there should be slips of 
paper, on which are to be written the colour and form of the flowers, 
the situation, if dry or damp, the nature of the soil, the elevation 
above sea-level, and the date when gathered. 
ALGA. 
In collecting sea-weeds, the best kind of receptacle is an ordinary 
sponge-bag. Glass bottles are dangerous companions between tide- 
marks, and for the same reason a knife for scraping off specimens 
should not be carried. A stout stick with a chisel end is most con- 
venient, and a cotton bag in a landing-net ring at the other end of it 
is useful in recovering detached floating specimens. Wading-boots 
are of great advantage; but where there are deep pools, the risk 
attending immersion is to be reckoned with. Good specimens from 
beyond low-water mark are to be obtained after a gale, though many 
of them are damaged. For dredging, especially from a rowing-boat, 
Reinke’s dredge is the best. 
To obtain the microscopic floating plant life of the sea and of 
fresh-waters (Phyto-plankton) a tow-net of the ordinary pattern, 
made of No. 20 Miller’s silk (to be purchased from Emil Fiechter, 
69 Hartington Road, Liverpool), may be used at any depth from a 
boat or ship going with Irttle more than steerage way. Surface 
organisms at sea may be got in excellent condition by pumping 
with the deck-hose through such a tow-net suspended from a boat- 
davit, or in less abundance by running the bath-tap through a silk 
bag for a few hours. To those who employ this method, indiarubber 
hose is to be recommended in preference to canvas or leather hose, 
on account of impurities discharged from both. 
In preparing sea-weed for the herbarium, great care must be 
taken in spreading each specimen with a small camel’s-hair brush on 
a paper mount inserted below it while floating in a basin. The 
specimen should then be dried in the ordinary way; but a layer of 
muslin should be placed over the sheets of specimens to prevent 
their adhering to the upper sheet of drying paper. 
In preserving minute Phyto-plankton, marine Diatoms, and the 
like, a fluid preparation is best.* Either chromic acid 0°25 per 
* The contents in the tail of the tow-net should be emptied into a funnel with a 
stop-cock, and withdrawn below after settling ; failing this, by settling and decanting, 
or by picking up with a dipping-tube. 
