254 The Microscope. 



should read : 1. Gum dammar, 3 pts. 2. Gum mastic, 1 pt. 

 Benzol, 6 pts. Directions for solution, etc., will do. 



Yours truly, 

 Orono, Me. a. B. Aubert. 



Editor The Microscope: — 



Will some one kindly tell me how I can, in a thorough and 

 clean way, bleach ferns which have been dried a long time, so as 

 to stain, in order to show sporangia, etc.? I have tried solutions 

 of chloride of lime and soda, but they attack the stems long be- 

 fore the fronds, and thus the specimen falls to pieces, besides 

 leaving more or less scum on the fronds. Chlorine gas, as far as 

 I have used it, is more satisfactory, but does not render the 

 sporangia entirely white. The foregoing methods as tried by 

 me take a long time — from several days to a week. I would 

 like a quick, clean and effective bleach, especially suited to take 

 the chlorophyll, etc., from the cells without injury to the specimen. 

 I am many miles from a large city, so that the address of the 

 firm from which any particular chemical can be obtained should 

 be given. 



Haverhill, N. H. J. D. L. 



Editor The Microscope : — 



Some random thoughts of past experience have arisen to the 

 surface by reading, on page 372, No. 12, Vol. 10 of The Micro- 

 scope, as follows : 



" I started at the end where the most ignorant beginners take 

 the first steps. I now understand how greatly in need of disin- 

 terested advice I then was. It would have saved me much grop- 

 ing in the darkness, for the path was through the deep woods, 

 ■with much stumbling over partly hidden obstacles." 



Now, my dear " Amateur," I enter a mild demurrer to your 

 having any regretful recollections of that " path through the 

 deep woods," for it was a valuably and necessary schooling — a 

 part of the microscopical alphabet — which, had it been omitted 

 in your case, the students of the microscope would not now be 

 in possession of much sound, practical advice which they have 

 gleaned from your " Notes on the Microscope Stand and on some 

 ■of its Accessories." 



For y^ars I too was wandering about in the " deep woods," 



