30 
INTRODUCTION. 
IV. 
soon as practicable after being brought from the shore. The mode of preparation 
is as follows, and, after a few trials and with a little care, will soon be learned. 
The collector should be provided with three flat dishes or large deep plates, and 
one or two shallower plates. One of the deep plates is to be filled with sea-water, 
and the other two with fresh water. In the dish of sea-water the stock of speci- 
mens to be laid out may be kept. A specimen taken from the stock is then intro- 
duced into one of the plates of fresh water, washed to get rid of dirt or parasites 
that may infest it, and pruned or divided into several pieces, if the branches be too 
dense, or the plant too tufted, to allow the branches to lie apart when the specimen 
is displayed on paper. The washed and pruned specimens are then floated in the 
second dish until a considerable number are ready for laying down. They are then 
removed separately into one of the shallower plates, that must be kept filled with 
dean water ; in which they are floated and made to expand fully. Next a piece of 
white paper of suitable size is carefully introduced under the expanded specimen. 
The paper then, with the specimen remaining displayed upon it, is cautiously 
brought to the surface of the water, and gently and carefully drawn out, so as not 
to disarrange the branches. A forceps, a porcupine’s quill, a knitting needle, or an 
etching tool, or any finely pointed instrument will assist the operator in displaying 
the branches and keeping them separate while the plant is lifted from the water ; 
and should any branch become matted in the removal, a little water dropped from 
a spoon over the tangled portion, and the help of the finely pointed tool, will restore 
it. 
The piece of wet paper with the specimen upon it is to be laid on a sheet of soft 
soaking paper, and others laid by its side until the sheet is covered. A piece of 
thin calico or muslin, as large as the sheet of soaking paper, is then spread over the 
wet specimens. More soaking paper, and another set of specimens covered with 
cotton, are laid on these ; and so a bundle is gradually raised. This bundle, 
consisting of sheets of specimens, is then placed between flat boards, under moderate 
pressure, and left for some hours. It must then be examined, the specimens on 
their white papers must be placed on dry sheets of soaking paper, covered with 
fresh cloths, and again placed under pressure. And this process must be repeated 
every day until the specimens are fully dry. 
In drying, most specimens will be found to adhere to the papers on which they 
have been displayed, and care must be taken to prevent their sticking to the pieces 
of cotton cloth laid over them. Should it be found difficult to remove them from 
the muslin, it is better to allow them to dry, trusting to after-removal, than to tear 
them away in a half-dried state, which would probably destroy the specimens. A 
few dozen pieces of unglazed thin cotton cloth of proper size should always be at 
hand, (white muslin, that costs six or eight cents per yard, answers very well). 
These cloths will be required only in the first two or three changes, for when the 
specimen has begun to dry on the white paper it will not adhere to the soaking 
paper laid over it. In warm weather the smaller kinds will often be found per- 
fectly dry after forty-eight hours’ pressure, and one or two changes of papers. 
