OF THE FILAMENTOUS ALGAL 
67 
vessel — a hand-basin is perhaps the best thing: at any 
rate, the vessel must be of such a depth as to admit of the 
whole hand being immersed, back downwards, under the 
plant. Give a final touch to the specimen either with 
a needle or with the fingers, to induce it to spread its 
filaments in every direction equally, and to get rid of knots 
and lumps. Then draw the piece of paper carefully under 
the specimen, so that the latter floats immediately over 
the centre. Spread the left hand under the paper, and 
the whole can be lifted slowly and cautiously out of the 
water. It may be retained for a few seconds in this 
position to let some of the moisture drip off, and then 
laid just as it is on a packet of five or six sheets of blotting 
paper * In this way the whole of the specimens at hand 
may be gradually disposed of. The next step is to place 
them under the press. For this purpose the little heaps 
■of blotting paper, each with its accompanying specimen, 
are to be piled one above the other to any convenient 
height, a sheet of stearine paper having been laid on each 
specimen before it receives its load of drying paper. The 
layers then follow each other in this fashion : 1. A packet 
of blotting paper ; 2. A specimen on white paper ; 3. A 
sheet of stearine paper ; 4. A packet of blotting paper ; and 
so on, the uppermost layer always consisting of blotting 
paper. The whole pile is next to be laid between two 
smooth boards of well-seasoned wood. [If to each of the 
narrow ends there is attached a broad strip of the same 
wood, but with the grain running in the opposite direction 
to that on the board itself, it tends greatly to keep it from 
warping, which the alternations of heat and moisture are 
apt to induce. . Much has been said of late years of the 
advantage of using, not solid boards, but frames made of 
parallel strips of wood, one inch apart, held together by 
* The blotting paper should be white, free from knots and rough- 
nesses, and as absorbent as possible. 
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