General Directions to be observed during a Voyage.*

The towing-nets should be kept overboard whenever it is practicable, and the dredge should be used perseveringly in soundings.

The anchor should be inspected as soon as it arrives at the surface, especially if the holding ground be mud. The finest shells have been lifted on the flukes of anchors. The cable should also undergo an examination.

Let the arming of the lead be narrowly observed, and let the men have orders to preserve anything that may be sticking to the arming, the lead itself, or the lead line.

Floating masses of sea-weed, especially sargasso, should be carefully searched; and if one of those tangled natural rafts, which are often carried adrift from great rivers, should be seen, it should be examined minutely, and the animals, plants, and seeds which it may be transporting to colonize some newly-formed island, should be preserved, if possible, or, at all events, accurately noted.

Whenever a new marine species, or one whose habits

* From 'Hints for Collecting,' &c., by Wm. John Broderip, Esq., F.R.S.

are unknown, is obtained, it should be placed in seawater, and, if practicable, a drawing should be made of it while yet alive, with a note stating whether it is gregarious or solitary-phosphorescent or not-and giving the locality, the temperature, the state of the weather, the depth of water, and the time where and when it was captured. The sea-water in which living marine animals are confined should be often changed; for it speedily becomes unfit for life.

If a turtle (Chelone) be taken, the shell should be examined for parasitic barnacles (Chelonobia) and other adhesions. The specimens ought not to be scraped off, but the plate of shell to which they are affixed should be taken out, and the whole should be preserved together. Whales should be searched for Coronulæ, Tubicinella, &c.: they should be left, as they are found, in the skin and blubber of the animal, and the piece with its contents should be plunged in spirits.

The stomach and intestines of those fishes and birds which are killed during the voyage should be inspected before they are thrown away, not only for the purpose of noting their food, but for the chance of finding undigested shells, &c., and in search of Entozoa. The feathers of birds should be examined with a view to ascertain whether any parasitic insects, any ova of fish or testacea, or any seeds of plants, adhere to their plumage. Their crops will often be found stored with fruits and seeds, which they disseminate in their flight.

Particular attention should be paid to the appearance of birds or insects, as well as to the direction whence they seem to come, with a view to the elucidation of their migration.

By placing in the sea clean planks of wood, the rate

of growth of Teredo navalis, and of the Cirripedia, together with the ravages made by the former in a given time, may be ascertained. Serpula will probably be found on the board also, and perhaps other shells. This experiment should be repeated whenever an opportunity occurs, and in different localities and climates. Some of the planks should be painted, others covered with pitch, others studded closely with copper and other nails, and some should be in their natural state.

When on shore in search of terrestrial mollusca (land-shells), the collector must not be content with a close examination of the trunks, leaves, and stems of trees and other plants, but must turn up all decayed vegetable substances, especially in moist places, and there dig into the earth, more particularly about the roots of trees, and under overshadowing bushes and shrubs. Stones must be lifted, herbaceous plants must be pulled up and their roots inspected, and, if the boat's crew be at hand, fallen trunks of trees should be turned over with handspikes. All ova must be preserved; and the height above the level of the sea at which the specimens were taken, and the plants on which any of them were feeding, must be noted. In the latter case the plants should be preserved in an herbarium, and numbered as directed under the head of insects.

No boggy places, especially where streamlets ooze out, should be passed without examining the rushes and other plants there growing, for fresh-water testacea. At the proper season their ova may be found adhering to living and dead stems of plants, leaves, &c.

No bird, insect, shell, or any other zoological specimen, should be neglected because it does not strike

the eye as beautiful, or because it is small and appears to be insignificant. Such objects are often the most interesting.

When a box or barrel of specimens is once securely packed, it should never be opened till it arrives at the place of its destination. If it is wished to have a few duplicates at hand, for the purpose of exchange with other collectors who may be met during the voyage, some specimens should be set aside for that purpose. All observations should be noted down while the impression is warm; and, if possible, with the subjects actually before the observer.

When an animal is seen afloat, and is remarkable for its magnitude or other peculiarity, and is not captured, its nearest approach to the ship, its mode, course, and rate of progression, and the parts actually visible, should be noted at the time with the utmost accuracy. If the observer feel conscious that he has not the zoological knowledge requisite for determining the species from the phenomena, he should abstain from giving the animal any special name. A shot fired, if it do not hit, may so alarm the creature as to cause some sudden movement which may reveal more of its true nature.

SECTION XII.

BOTANY.

BY SIR WILLIAM HOOKER, K.H., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. &c., AND DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL GARDENS OF KEW.

BOTANY is a science which requires to be studied at home as well as in the field. For this reason it is highly desirable that persons visiting foreign countries should not only obtain information on the spot respecting the plants and their uses and properties, but that they should transmit to this country ample collections of well-dried specimens, with the rarer fruits and seeds, and all sorts of interesting vegetable products. By the latter expression we mean not only gums and resins, drugs and dyestuffs, but whatever may be remarkable of vegetable origin in food and clothing, for building (the various kinds of wood), utensils, &c. We therefore, first, offer a few plain instructions for collecting and transporting plants in foreign lands.

Living Plants for Cultivation.

Plants for cultivation in our European gardens may be introduced either as seeds, bulbs, tubers, cuttings, or rooted plants.

Seeds, bulbs, and tubers are easily collected, and as easily transmitted to Europe from very distant countries. The first (seeds) require to be gathered