EULES FOPw PKESERVING, ETC. 



xxiii 



happened to be there, and pressing them under a travelling box, neither wetting 

 the furniture nor doing anything else to annoy the hostess, and causing no extra 

 trouble but the emptying of the bath once oftener than usual. 



This is rough work, though, and seldom necessary. In any house you may, hj 

 asking, have the use of a common table, or cover a better one with oil-cloth, and 

 so also the floor. You must then have ready a largish bowl and three moderate- 

 sized meat-dishes — if white, so much the better. Also some fine white "medium" 

 cartridge or drawing-paper, previously cut into three sizes, so that there may be 

 uniformity in the appearance of your collection. Also an ample supply of blotting- 

 paper (the cheap sort is sufficiently good), and of well-washed muslin (the commonest 

 kind of book-muslin) cut into slips of folio-paper size. You require also a camel's- 

 hair brush for cleaning the plants, and a porcupine's quill or ivory knitting-needle, 

 or something pointed, for separating fine branches and spreading them delicately on 

 the paper. A pair of scissors, too, for clipping overthick specimens; a pair of pincers 

 for lifting them about; and, finally, 'plenty of both sea and fresh water. Of course, 

 too, there should be a puncheon at hand, to receive the water in which you have 

 been laying out your plants, the moment you observe it becoming dirtied or dis- 

 coloured; for, without the strictest attention to its cleanliness and purity, the paper 

 on which your specimen is spread will be stained, and remain an eyesore for ever. 



And now, with all these appliances around you, begin your work by ivasJiing your 

 plants. For which purpose put a dozen or so into the howl — those first which you 

 may have brought home in bottles — and pour sea-water on them. Do not overcrowd 

 the bowl, or you cannot see what you are about. With a moderate number you 

 can take them up one by one and shake them a little in succession. Then place 

 one in a dish with sea-water, and, drawing it to you, observe its condition as to 

 dirt and mussels, which often infest sea- weeds. Brush it over carefully with ^^our 

 camel's-hair brush to remove the dirt, and if the mussels will not move, press them 

 off with the end of the porcupine's quill. When you are satisfied that the specimen 

 is clean, remove it into dish ]^o. 2, still floating it in sea-water, and there let it 

 remain till you have prepared several others in a similar manner; for it does not 

 do to go backwards and forwards from one part of the process to another. 



When you have got from half-a-dozen to a dozen plants (dependent on their 

 size, for they must never be crowded) in dish No. 2, push the first dish away and 

 bring the second close. The plants are all clean, it is true, but you have now to 

 consider, as you see them floating in the water, whether they will look well when 

 flattened by pressure, or whether any bushy ones among them may not be improved 

 by a little thinning. If there are branches springing from all sides of the stem 

 (^quadrifarioiisly), as in the cases of CallUliamnioii arbascula (Fig. 262), and Clirysy- 

 menia (now Chijlocladid) clavellosa (Fig. 133), your laid-out frond will form heavy 

 lumps here and there, and its beauty will be lost. Unpleasant, therefore, as it is 

 to clip any luxuriant growth, it is desirable to make the sacrifice, and to cut 

 away some portion of the branches, that the rest of them may be seen to advantage. 



But there is still a difiiculty before you. There are some plants which will not 

 bear even the touch of fresh water, and which, therefore, must be laid out, as well 

 as cleaned and prepared, in that from the sea. 



Polysiplionia Brodicei (Fig. 120), for instance, begins to decompose at once in 



