RULES 
FOR PRESERVING AND LAYING OUT 
SEA-WEEDS. 
Whenever it is possible sea-weeds should be laid out on paper, and put under pressure the 
same day they are gathered ; but as this is not always practicable, especially to lady-collectors, 
who have friends’ convenience to consult, and other matters to attend to, it is well to point 
out the two other methods by which shore-gatherings may be kept tolerably safe, until the 
laying out can be accomplished. I shall call one the damping process ; the other is called 
rough-drying. 
The damping process is chiefly for cases of emergency, although it can be made available 
for the complete drying of plants if carefully repeated. Now one of an amateur-collector’s 
emergencies is, when, in the course of travelling in an orthodox-touring hurry with non- 
naturalist friends, she has collected a basketful of plants on the shore, but has neither 
time nor opportunity for even rough-drying them — much less for laying them out ; and the 
question arises. What is to be done with them ? for they will soon decompose and become 
worthless if they are allowed to lie long together in a mass. 
Well, let her travelling-bag always contain two or three old towels — soft thick ones are 
best^ — and at the first ten minutes’ opportunity let her deal with the sea-weeds as follows : — 
Spread one of the towels on a table or the floor, and scatter a few plants in a row across it, 
near one end, but leaving enough of towel beyond to fold over the plants. When so folded, 
scatter a second row on the fold itself, remembering in all cases to spread and separate the 
plants nicely, so that they may not lie too thick. Then double this fold over so as to cover 
the plants, and proceed to scatter a third row as before ; then fold it over, and so on again till 
plants and towel are formed into a sort of roly-poly pudding ; the towel answering to the paste, 
and the sea-weeds to the sweetmeat. It will be a dampish bundle, but, wrapped in a dry 
towel, it may be stowed away in a bag, or covered up in the sea-weed basket. 
It is to a well-known algologist, my friend Miss Cutler, that I am indebted for these 
hints, and as the plan was practised by her in my behalf on the occasion of a hurried visit to 
the shore at Exmouth, and many of the plants were laid out successfully the following day, I 
have no hesitation in recommending it in cases of inevitable hurry. 
Rough-drying has other advantages, and is performed as follows: — Spread three or four 
newspapers on the floor of an airy room, or in any airy situation, so that it is not exposed to 
the full blaze of the sun ; for, as before explained, sunshine takes the colour out of sea-weeds. 
