VESSEL FOR FLOATING OUT THE PLANTS. 19 



I would strongly recommend that no other should be 

 used. It is also desirable, and will be found very con- 

 venient, that a quantity of papers of different sizes 

 should be previously cut, and in readiness for displaying 

 the plants, — a practice which will enable the operator 

 to dispose of his materials to the best advantage. 



This observance serves, also, to give a neatness and 

 uniformity to a collection, not to be accomplished by 

 using papers cut at random, or of casual dimensions. 



It will also be necessary to be provided with a suit- 

 able vessel, filled with clean fresh water, for floating out 

 and spreading the specimens on paper. For this pur- 

 pose, a flat, white dish, glazed within, about three 

 inches deep, eighteen inches long, and fourteen inches 

 wide, will be found most convenient. When required 

 for use, it is to be filled nearly to the brim with very 

 clean water. 



Some persons are in the habit of using the shal- 

 low dishes that are commonly employed in bringing 

 meat to table : but such vessels are not at all calculated 

 for floating out sea- weeds ; for, unless there is a suffi- 

 cient depth of water to allow the hand to pass under the 

 paper on which the specimen is to be spread, it can 

 never be neatly or naturally arranged. 



You must also have in readiness a few quires of 

 paper for drying your specimens after they are removed 



c 2 



