APPENDIX I 



VISUAL IDENTIFICATION 



Pollen identification and description can be carried to considerable 

 detail, and the beginner who is faced with the problem of visual identifica- 

 tion of the catch on a series of trap slides can get help from books, in- 

 cluding the two volumes by Erdtman (1952, 1957) and the one by Hyde 

 & Adams (1958), as well as from the journal, Pollen et Spores^ published 

 in Paris. For many other groups of organisms little help can be had from 

 books, and in any laboratory doing visual scanning of slides it is essential 

 to get together a reference collection of slides in the standard mountant 

 adopted, and prepared from reliably identified specimens from the field. 

 (Fungus spores from cultures are often abnormal and unlike the forms 

 which occur on spore-traps.) 



Plates 5, 6, and 7 illustrate some t^'pical plant spores etc. at the uniform 

 magnification of i ,000 diameters to help the beginner, who may have been 

 confused by many published illustrations which tend to portray plant 

 spores at various and often widely different magnifications. These 

 paintings, by Maureen E. Bunce, attempt to depict the object as it appears 

 under the microscope — with a minimum of interpretation. As far as 

 possible they are from collected specimens and are mounted unstained in 

 glycerine jelly. Protozoa have been omitted. 



Key to Source 



c. from culture //. from hay 



s. from field specimen /. from Hirst-trap slide 



207 



