AND PRESERVING PLANTS. 
121 
marks, and for the same reason a knife for scraping off specimens 
should not be carried. A stout stick with a chisel end is most 
convenient, and a cotton bag in a landing-net ring at the other end 
of it is useful in recovering detached floating specimens. Wading- 
boots are of great advantage ; but where there are deep pools, the risk 
attending immersion is to be reckoned with. Good specimens from 
beyond low-water mark are to be obtained after a gale, 
though many of them are damaged. For dredging, 
especially from a rowing-boat, Reinke's dredge is the 
best (see fig. 1). 
To obtain the microscopic floating plant-life of the 
sea and of fresh-waters (Phyto-plankton) a tow-net of 
the ordinary pattern, made of ]No. 20 Miller's silk (to 
be purchased from Emil Fiechter, 69, Hartington Road, 
Liverpool), may be used at any depth from a boat or 
ship going with little more than steerage way. Surface 
organisms at sea may be got in excellent condition by 
pumping with the deck-hose through such a tow-net 
suspended from a boat-davit, or in less abundance by 
running the bath-tap through a silk bag for a few 
hours. To those who employ this method indiarubber 
hose is to be recommended in preference to canvas or 
leather hose, on account of impurities discharged from 
both. 
In preparing sea-weed for the herbarium, great care 
must betaken in spreading each specimen with a small 
camel's-hair brush on a paper mount inserted below it 
while floating in a basin. The specimen should then 
be dried in the ordinary way; but a layer of muslin 
should be placed over the sheets of specimens to prevent 
their adhering to the upper sheet of drying-paper. 
In preserving minute Phyto-plankton, marine Dia- 
toms, and the like, a fluid preparation is best.* Either 
Fig. 1. 
* The contents in the tail of the tow-net should be emptied into a funnel with 
a stop-cock (see fig. 2), and withdrawn below after settling ; failing this, by 
settling and decanting, or by picking up with a dipping-tube. 
