INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 105 



cellular structure. Many of these may be preserved in masses, 

 provided they can be put by tolerably dry, and beautiful 

 specimens may be prepared at home. The small quantity of 

 salt which adheres to them is, in this case, rather beneficial 

 than otherwise. The preparation of such beautiful samples as 

 those which are distributed by M. Lenormand, requires a great 

 deal of time and neat manipulation ; in no case, however, must 

 mere beauty be attained at the expense of utility, the great 

 object in view being the preservation of specimens in such a 

 state as to render every part capable of comparison with 

 similar or allied species. Occasionally, it may be found that 

 oiled paper, fine linen, or glass may be useful for the 

 preparation of particular species, which are apt to cling to 

 the paper which covers them ; but any practised hand wiU 

 soon invent such methods as peculiar properties of individual 

 kinds may require. I do not recommend the use of linen too 

 much, as I have seen many specimens, otherwise of con- 

 siderable beauty, materially injured by it. The most delicate 

 species may be readily transmitted by post if wrapped in fine 

 muslin and enclosed in thin gutta percha or tin foil. After some 

 days, specimens will be found in a good state of preservation, and 

 as fit for microscopical investigation as when they were taken 

 from their native rocks, provided the quantity enclosed be 

 small. I have received hundreds of specimens from Mr. Ealfs 

 and Mr. Thwaites in this way, which I have been able to 

 study almost as well as if I had gathered them myself. The 

 more delicate Algae soon decompose, even when kept immersed 

 in salt water; and, in general, the sooner specimens are prepared 

 after they have been brought home, the better, whether free in 

 their gutta percha bag and tin vasculum, or immersed in little 

 flasks of water ; and if this be the case in our temperate realms, 

 the necessity will be so much the greater in warmer countries. 

 86. AJgEC, like Cryptogams, taken as a whole, are evidently 

 distributed into a few large groups, each of which consists of 

 other subordinate divisions. If all such divisions are made of 

 equal importance, or if the divisions are more numerous than 

 are really indicated by nature, the effect will be to fritter away 

 general views into mere details. 



