sly
arranged on paper, if wanted for fitting-up purposes, or more
carefully arranged if for a collection. After washing, these small
plants adhere by their natural mucilage to the paper on which they may
be floated out.

Of all the sea-weeds proper the Carrageen mosses (Chondrus crispus and
mamillosus) are the most eligible, and if dried and arranged in cases
are very elegant. The common coralline (Corallina officinalis)--a
sea-weed which so rapidly attracts carbonate of lime as to be almost
of a stony or coral-like texture--is another invaluable plant for
fitting up. When wet it is usually purple or pink, but on exposure to
the sun becomes white.

Amongst the zoophytes which, though looking like the sea-weeds, are
not of vegetable origin, there are many which are most useful, not to
say indispensable to the taxidermist. Leaving out the foreign corals,
sea-fans, sponges, etc, we shall certainly find the most useful English
species to be first: the broad leaved horn-wrack (Flustra foliacia),
that mass of thin hand-like leaves, of the colour of brown paper,
which is cast up on some shores, often in great quantities. Other
useful sorts are those like little trees, such as the common sea fir
(Sertularia, abietina and operculata); these last are found especially
attached to stones, shells and sea-weeds. The lobster's horn coralline
(Antennularia antennina) and the various sponges are also most useful
things, the branched sponge (Halichondria oculata) and others being
amongst the best for use. Several of the bladder-wracks or
"sea-grapes" will dry nicely, as also will the egg cases of the whelk
and the "sea purses" and "skate barrows," really the egg bags of the
dogfish and skate.

The starfish, or "five fingers," will, after washing, dry well, or can
be plunged in any one of the hardening solutions mentioned in Chapter
IV. The various sea urchins (Echinii), if emptied of their contents,
make pretty objects, either with or without their spines. The
beautiful sea anemones are, however, impossible to preserve as dried
objects, but must be modelled in glass or wax, as imitations. Various
shells come in handily also; amongst those may be mentioned the common
razor shells (Solen ensis and siliqua), several of the Venus shells,
the common limpets, the chitons, several of the trochi, and last, but
not least, the shells of the speckled scallop (Pecten varius).

Many freshwater, as also land shells, come in for decorating cases o