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Algae = plants?

Algae have a lousy reputation. Surely when slick washes around the coasts and slithers along bathers' legs. How unjust! In reality they are amazing denizens of the seas, colorful, healthy and sometimes even gleaming. And though we see them as belonging to the plants, they are none - just as little as fungi or lichens. Scholars reckon that they count over 400.000 species. But just a trickle is acquainted for.

Variety of shapes

An unknown person must have been deeply fascinated by those bizarre entities. That anonymous has collected countless algae, dried, pressed and neatly pasted them down in an album. The variety of shapes is quite impressing. And at the same time the question came up: what has driven him or her to do that? He or she hardly was a botanist or taxonomist, otherwise the exact finding place, family and species would have been mentioned. Such data just make a collection of plants valuable because so alterations can be spotted. Was it the pure joy of planting decors with an unconventional material?

 

Nearly perfect

The herbarium of phanerogams by Hermann Wagner is more precise here. To say the truth: we had to check first what phanerogams are. Now we know: flowering plants. Hermann Wagner was a pro. As a teacher and author of scientific books for the youth he describes all details of his finds from the years 1856 and 1857. Supposing he would be setting out into nature with a vasculum again today - more likely would it be a plastic bag, he would provide GPS data to each finding place.

An essential piece

And since we are in the wild, we'd like to recommend an essential piece of outdoor equipment. Although it would actually be a real shame to use it, our drinking cup made of watertight paper. It certainly belonged to the basics needed by hunters and wanderers, military persons and even pupils around 1910. We did not dare to test it, but are confident that it would serve well. At least once.

Ladies only

Back from outdoors a coffee table awaits us, outfitted with place cards as fine dining culture required about 1950. But only ladies are welcome here. Host was an anonymous (again) birthday person, we guess also a woman. Question is, who may stay? You? Or you?