392 



SCIENCE. 



When the plant is perfectly dry and removed from the 

 press you should, before putting it away and forgetting 

 these tacts, write on the back ot the paper the exact date 

 and place of collecting. 



People often ask me what I use to make the plants 

 stick so firmly to the paper, supposing, evidently, that it 

 is necessary to have some kind of gum or mucilage for 

 that purpose. I have to answer that I have for most of 

 them to use nothing whatever ; that there is sufficient 

 gelatinous mat er in the body of the plant to make it per- 

 fectly adhere to the paper without other aid. And the 

 reason for putting the muslin over the plants in the pro- 

 cess of pressing and drying is, that they may not stick to 

 the drying paper which is above them, the muslin not 

 adhering to the pUnts at all except in some few cases. 



But a considerable number of "Sea Mosses" do not 

 adhere to paper well. They either have noi gelatinous 

 matter enough in them or will not give it out to glue their 

 bodies to the paper. Various devices are resorted to in 

 these cases. Sometimes the plant, after being dried in 

 the press in the usual way, is simply strapped down with 

 siips of gummed paper. Sometimes they are fastened 

 down with some kind of adhesive substance, after 

 being dried, gum tragacanth being the best for this. 

 Others take them and float them out a second time in 

 skimmed milk and after wiping off the milk from the 

 paper, from the plants, except directly under the plants, 

 put them in the press to dry again, when, it is said, they 

 stay. I have never tried this method. A friend of mine 

 who is famous for the artistic way in which she always 

 "lays out" her "Sea Mosses " tells me that for these 

 forms which lack what the Phrenologist might call " ad- 

 hesiveness" she prepares from the " Irish Moss " Chron- 

 dus crispus a semi-fluid paste, into which she dips them 

 before putting them on paper, and then carefully removes 

 all of it from the paper and plant, except what is between 

 the two and then put them in the press. By this means 

 they are made to stick "like paper on the wall." 



In preparing the coarser " Rcckweed " and " Kelp " 

 for the herbarium, another method will have to be per- 

 sued. These will almost all turn very dark, or quite 

 black, in the process of drying. I am accustomed to 

 treat them by the following method : Taking them 

 home, I spread them out in some shady place and let 

 thnn lie tor a few hours, perhaps twenty-four, perhaps 

 lessor more, until most of the water in them has evapor- 

 ated, but not till they have become hard, stiff" and 

 brittle. Then I put them between sheets of drying pap-r 

 and lay them in the press, and keep them there until the 

 process of drying is complete. A little practice will be 

 the only way by which you will be able to tell if they 

 have been dried long enough in the open air. If you 

 find them inclined to mould while kept in the press, you 

 may be sure they are not dry enough, throw them away 

 and get some new ones. 



It is sometimes desirable to keep the treasures we 

 have gathered from the sea unmounted, that we may 

 carry them away to await a more convenient season tor 

 floating them out, or that we may send them to some 

 friend or correspondent on the other side of the continent, 

 or beyond the seas. It is, therefore, fortunate that all but 

 the more delicate and perishable of these plants, may be 

 dried rough, rolled up and kept any length of time, 

 transported around the world, and then, when put in 

 water again, will come out in half an hour, as fresh and 

 bright and supple and graceful as they were when taken 

 from their briny home. The friend just referred to 

 assured me that even the Callithamnia, Dasya and 

 the most delicate Polysiphonice, and such like plants, may 

 be so treated by first shaking the wa'er out of them, and 

 then thoroughly mingling them with dry seasand, and 

 drying them rough in the usual way. She says the sand 

 will adhere to the most delicate fibres and ramuli of the 

 plant in such a way as to keep them separate and pre- 

 vent their getting glued together, then, when they are 



afterwards soaked out, the sand will be disengaged, and 

 the plant will be left as good as ever it was. Perhaps I 

 ought to suggest that " soaking out" should always be 

 done with salt water, unless you know you have only 

 those plants which fresh water will not hurt. When I 

 have had specimens of the " Rockweed," or " Kelp," 

 sent to me " rough dried," I have found it best to pre- 

 pare them for mounting, not by immersing them in 

 water, and so get a great quantity of moisture into 

 them, which would have to be expelled afterwards, with 

 no little trouble, but by wrapping them about with wet 

 towels ; from these they would imbibe enough damp- 

 ness to be manageable, and not enough to make them 

 troublesome. 



Before taking leave of this part of my subject I must 

 permit myself to add a word to a point which botanists 

 commonly think too little about, viz., the display of taste 

 in the mounting of their plants. To the mere botanist 

 a plant is a specimen of a given genus and species, inter- 

 esting only for that fact. If it is a full grown typical 

 form with fruit, all the better. Now, all are not botan- 

 ists. Most of those who will read these pages will have an 

 interest in these plants, to which the scientific interest 

 will be secondary. I want to say then to them, look 

 for the best things ; get the whole plant when you can, 

 but get and preserve the most perfect and beautiful 

 plants. It is the rule with botanists to put but one 

 species on each paper or card. I Certainly advise disre- 

 garding this rule, unless you are mounting for scientific 

 purposes altogether or chiefly. With numberless shades 

 of red, which one group of " Sea Mosses " will give you, 

 with the various kinds of green the other two will pre- 

 sent, you will have an opportunity to display all the taste 

 and skill you are master of. For in combining several 

 different colors and forms on the same paper you may 

 often produce the most brilliant results. A little practice 

 will soon make you able to handle two or three plants at 

 the same time in " floating them out " almost as readily 

 as you can manage one. Then, again, you will find it 

 possible with some of the more slender plants to work 

 interesting and beautiful "designs" in the same way. 

 Initial leiters, even monograms, may not be beyond your 

 reach with a little care and practice. Let the "Sea 

 Mosses " contribute to the cultivation of every faculty 

 and all poss ble means of pleasure for you. 



For preserving your treasures after they are neatly 

 mounted, pressed and dried, you have two courses open to 

 you. You can take care of them as the botanist does 

 by arranging them systematically in a herbarium, with 

 covers of stout manilla paper, folded ioj^ x 16 inches for 

 each genus, and the spechs separated by white sheets of 

 thinner cover, or you can provide yourself with blank 

 books, made for the purpose, having the leaves cut to fit 

 the sizes of paper or card which you mount your plants 

 on, so as to slip the corners of the cards into the cuts. 

 It is well in that case to provide a book with leaves large 

 enough to hold two or four cards each. By following the 

 directions here given I cannot doubt you will soon be- 

 come a successful collector, and an expert in mounting 

 and preserving " Sea Mosses." 



According to M. Chappuis (Ball. Soc. Chim.) the phos- 

 phorescence of phosphorus vapor by ozone. Phosphorus 

 is not luminous in pure oxygen at 15 , and at the ordinary 

 pressure, introduction of a trace of ozone causes luminos- 

 ity ; those substances which hinder the luminosity of phos- 

 phorus, e. ff. turpentine oil, are substances which destroy 

 ozone. If a little turpentine oil is brought along with phos- 

 phorus into a tube containing pure oxygen, and a small 

 quantity of ozone is then passed in, the phosphorus exhib- 

 its luminosity for a few moments only ; M. Chappuis sup- 

 poses that this is due to the combustion of phosphorus 

 vapor by the ozone, and that the transiency of the pheno- 

 menon is explained by the rapid removal of the ozone by 

 the turpentine oil. 



