PLAN OF BRINGING HOME SEA- WEEDS. 15 



for, after all, on our return home, it will be found there 

 is still a great deal of work to do before the specimens 

 are in a fit state to be finally committed to paper, since 

 foreign substances will still remain attached to them 

 with much pertinacity even after we have supposed them 

 to be perfectly clean.* 



In carrying them home, a tin vessel, made something 

 in shape like a lady's reticule, well painted inside with white 

 paint, and covered externally with one or more coats of 

 black japan varnish, will be found very convenient. For 

 the coarser weeds, I use, myself, a fishing-basket, linod 

 with vulcanized India rubber, or gutta percha, which I 

 sling across my shoulder with a broad leather strap. 

 Some prefer flat, wide-mouthed glass or zinc bottles. 

 The finer species, such as the Callithamnise, Griffith- 

 sise, &o., &c, should always be kept apart from others. 

 Strong, flat, white glass bottles, commonly termed toad- 



* Several duplicate specimens of every kind should, if 

 attainable, be always preserved, and more especially where 

 the species is a variable one. Very many Algae vary in the 

 comparative breadth of the leaves, and in the degree of 

 branching of the stems ; and when such varieties are no- 

 ticed, a considerable series of specimens is often requisite 

 to connect a broad and a narrow form of the same species. 



A neglect of this care leads to endless mistakes in the 

 after-work of identification of species, and has been the 

 cause of burdening our systems with a troublesome number 

 of synonyms. 



