XXIV 
RULES FOR PRESERVING 
it must be the length of the dish in use ; and an oblong shape; with one rounded end, is desirable. 
The advantage gained is that the paper can no longer bend, which it is otherwise apt to do 
in a treacherous manner, as you draw it over the edge of the plate, the metal plate keeping it 
flat throughout, while the holes allow the water to drain away. 
Wliat has been so long and successfully done without, can, of course, be done without now, 
but both time and trouble are saved by this simple invention, and it is within the reach of 
every one who will take the trouble to procure it. 
On the removal of the paper with the plant upon it from the water, it may be either laid at 
once upon sheets of blotting-paper (four thick), or you may place it for a short time on a linen 
cloth or sheet, spread over another table, or the back of a sofa, or even on the ground. This 
is merely to absorb a little portion of the water, and I believe the plan to be a good one, 
inasmuch as it prevents the mass of blotting-paper from the excessive saturation it otherwise 
must undergo. 
And now leave it, and proceed in the same way with more plants till you have enough to 
cover the whole sheet of blotting-paper ; and when they are all neatly laid side by side, but not 
touching, upon it, cover them with one of the pieces of muslin already spoken about. On the 
top of which muslin place four more sheets of blotting-paper, and then you have a fresh dry 
surface on which to lay another batch of plants similarly prepared and treated. And proceed 
in this way till you have raised a bundle — it may be even six or eight inches thick— of 
alternate blotting-papers, plants, and muslin. Which bundle place between two flat boards, 
weighting the top moderately ; or if in a clothes-press, be careful not to screw it tightly down. 
This is an error into which beginners are very apt to fall ; but it may be here laid down as 
a rule, that except in dealing with the stiff, unruly, leathery olive algas, strong pressure is 
never necessary, and often most objectionable. If it does nothing else, it stamps the texture 
of the muslin both on paper and plant, disfiguring the one and destroying the character of 
the other. Neither does it ensure the flatness of the paper to squeeze it in this violent manner. 
Permanent evenness and flatness are produced by continued moderate pressure — continued^ even 
after the drying seems effected. 
At the end of five or six hours take the bundle from between the boards, remove the top 
sheets of blotting-paper, lift the muslin most carefully off the sea-weeds, and then proceed to 
place them on other dry sheets of blotting-paper as before. And in most cases it is well to 
repeat the muslin cover also. Do the same, of course, to all the layers in succession, and put 
the new bundle between the boards again ; this time with a rather heavier weight, and there 
leave it for half a day ; after which, change the blotting-papers once more, but the muslin 
will no longer be required. Weight them again between the boards, and leave them for one, two, 
or three days, as is most convenient, by which time they will appear perfectly dry. Nevertheless, 
it is no bad plan to change them once again, putting them now in single sheets of blotting- 
paper. Then replace them between the boards, and then — forget them^^ if possible ; for the 
longer they remain in press the firmer they will be, and the less liable to curl. 
Thus much for the process generally ; but one or two remarks must still be made. Very 
coarse and very delicate plants must not be mixed in the same bundle. The former need strong 
pressure to get them tolerably flat. Fucus Fucodium nodosum) nodosusfFig. 13), for 
instance, with its large thick air-vessels, would ruin several layers of delicate plants, as its 
impression could not fail to be forced through the damp blotting-paper. The same remark 
