IV. 
INTRODUCTION. 
29 
In gathering Algos 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 collectors are apt to pluck branches or mere scraps of the larger Algae, which 
often 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, ( 'Sargassa , &c.) the leaves that grow on the lower and on the 
upper branches are quite different, and were a loAver and an upper branch plucked 
from the same root, they might be so dissimilar as to pass for portions of different 
species. It is very necessary, therefore, 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 division of large specimens, unless 
he keep in view this maxim : every botanical specimen should be an epitome of the 
essential marks of a species. 
Several duplicate specimens of every kind should always be preserved, and par- 
ticularly where the species is a variable one. Very many Algae vary in the compa- 
rative breadth of the leaves, and in the degree of branching of the stems ; and 
when such varieties are noticed, 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 synonymes. 
Where it is the collector’s object to preserve Algae in the least troublesome man- 
ner, and in a rough state, to be afterwards laid out and prepared for pressing at 
leisure, the specimens fresh from the sea are to be spread out and left to dry in an 
airy, but not too sunny, situation. They are not to be washed or rinsed in fresh 
water, nor is their natural moisture to be squeezed from them. The more loosely 
and thinly they are spread out the better, and in dry weather they will be sufficiently 
dry after a few hours’ exposure to allow of packing. In a damp state of the atmos- 
phere the drying process will occupy some days. No other preparation is needed, 
and they may be loosely packed in paper bags or boxes, a ticket of the exact locality 
being affixed to each parcel. Such specimens will shrink very considerably in 
drying, and most will have changed colour more or less, and the bundle will have 
become very unsightly ; nevertheless, if thoroughly dried, to prevent mouldiness or 
heating, and packed loosely , such specimens will continue for a long time in a per- 
fectly sound state ; and on being re-moistened and properly pressed, will make 
excellent cabinet specimens. 
It is very much better, when drying Algae in this rough manner, not to wash 
them in fresh water, because the salt they contain serves to keep them in a pliable 
state, and causes them to imbibe water more readily on re-immersion. All large 
and coarse growing Algae may be put up in this manner, and afterwards, at leisure, 
prepared for the herbarium by washing, steeping, pressing, and drying between 
folds of soft paper, in the same way that land plants are pressed and dried. But 
with the membranous and gelatinous kinds, a different method must be adopted. 
The smaller and more delicate Algas must be prepared for the herbarium as 
