Teazles, thistles, and the umbels (seed-heads) of various plants, chiefly compositae, will be found of service; but everything must be thoroughly dried before being coloured, or before being introduced into shades or cases. Nothing must be coloured with water colours or gums, as some writers contend, or mould will inevitably follow. A few drops of creosote, or the black carbolic acid of commerce, poured into the case or shade just before closing up, is a very good thing to prevent mildew, though if everything is thoroughly dried, and only oil colours are used, no danger from this cause need be apprehended.
SEA-WEEDS, SHELLS, ETC. — Sea-weeds, which are constantly used in fitting up cases of sea birds, need no description as to their collection, further than to say that all sea-weeds, whether sea-weeds proper, corallines, and zoophytes, must be well washed in spring water, many times changed, to thoroughly remove the salt, and must be well dried before being introduced into cases or shades. Those who require full descriptions of British sea-weeds, their collection and preservation, I must refer to "British Marine Algae," by W. H. Grattan, published at the office of The Bazaar, 170, Strand, London.
Few sea-weeds proper are applicable to the purpose of the taxidermist, though some of the oar-weeds can be used, and many of the red sea-weeds (Rhodosperms) can be floated out in water and carelessly 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 of littoral birds. Amongst those of the first we may instance Limnoea stagnalis, palustris, peregra, etc.., Dreissena polymorpha, Planorbis corneus, etc..; the various Unios, anodons, and many others.
Amongst the land shells very many of the Helices, such as the gaily-coloured nemoralis, or its variety hortensis, caperata, arbustorum, cantiana, etc.., as well as many other specimens.
The preservation of most freshwater and land shells is exceedingly easy, the greater number of specimens requiring only to be plunged into boiling water, and the contents removed — an easy operation in the case of the bivalves, and the contents of univalves or snail-like shells being also easily wormed out with a pin or crooked awl. [Footnote: Mr. R. B. Woodward, F.G.S., etc.. in one of the very best and most practical of those wonderful little penny "Handbooks" for young collectors, advises a large spoonful of salt being added to the boiling water, for two reasons, one, because it puts them out of pain at once, and also makes their subsequent extraction more easy. "It is a good plan (says he) to soak the smaller shells in cold water (without salt), before killing them, as they swell out with the water, and do not when dead retreat so far into their shells."]
For works on shells see "Manual of the Mollusca," by Dr. S. P. Woodward, J. Gywn-Jeffreys' "British Conchology," Lovell Reeve's "British Land and Freshwater Mollusks," and several clever articles in Science Gossip and the Conchological Journal, by Mr. G. Sherriff Tye and others.