10 SHOKE TO BE EXAMINED AFTER WIND. 



ren.* Immediately after gales of wind, and more par- 

 ticularly after those occurring a little before or during the 

 spring-tides, which take place at the period of every new 

 and full moon, the shore should be diligently explored, 

 and the rejectamenta thrown up by the sea carefully 

 turned over and examined.f The action of the sea dur- 



* In gathering Algae from their native places, the whole 

 plant should be plucked from the very base ; and if there 

 be an obvious root it should be left attached. Young col- 

 lectors are apt to pluck branches or mere scraps of the 

 larger Algae, which in most cases afford no just notion of 

 the mode of growth or natural habit of the plant from which 

 they have been snatched, and are often insufficient for the 

 first purpose of a specimen, that of ascertaining the plant to 

 which it belongs. 



In many of the leafy fucoid plants, such as Sargassum, 

 &c, the leaves that grow on the lower and on the upper 

 branches are quite different ; and were a lower and an 

 upper branch picked from the same root, they might be 

 found so dissimilar as to pass for portions of different spe- 

 cies. It is therefore very necessary to gather, when it can 

 be done, the whole plant, including the root. It is quite 

 true that the large kinds may be judiciously divided; but 

 the young collector had better aim at selecting moderately- 

 sized specimens of the entire plant, than attempt the divi- 

 sion of large specimens, unless he keep in view this maxim : 

 — every botanical specimen should be an epitome of the 

 essential marks of a species. 



f In selecting from rejectamenta cast upon the shore, 

 we should take those specimens only that have suffered 

 least in colour or texture, by exposure to the air. 



