There were a handful of scientists around the turn of the nineteenth century who certainly wouldn’t have underestimated it, like the German botanist, Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (1757–1834). After admitting that this part of the vegetable world was quite unfamiliar to him, he resolved to become acquainted with algae; however, he quickly realized the lack of resources available to the beginner in this area of study. This shortfall, he lamented, frustrated and discouraged research on these plants. He thus set out to redress the situation in his Remarks on the Study of Cryptogamous Water Plants (1797). How could the botanist, he asked, be expected to study algae effectively when there were no guidelines, methods, or best practices yet in place? He enumerated the difficulties waiting to beset the researcher in the investigation of a water plant like C. fontinalis. How should it be gathered from its body of water without damaging it? Should it be studied while wet or while dry? How should it be preserved? How should its structures be communicated when extant terminology focused on flowering plants? How should it be mounted for microscopic examination? How should the researcher build a collection of other algae for the sake of comparison? How should the “wet felt”, constituted by thousands of slender filaments, be drawn? Roth answered each of these questions in turn, not hesitating to underscore how difficult it was for him to investigate this phenomenon without predecessors: “The lack of a teacher or guide, after which I could properly organize my work, was quite palpable to me. I believe, however, to have fortunately overcome the most significant difficulties and held it as my responsibility to make budding plant lovers familiar with the same” (8).