1895] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 363 



from it a dark blue violet stain. For fixing, the author uses a 

 solution of 65 gr. corrosive sublimate and 15 gr. sodium chloride 

 in 100 ccm. of water. 



MICROSCOPICAL APPARATUS. 



Botanical Microscopes. — Tyro (Chicago, 111.). The study 

 of plants botanically is not so difficult a performance as the 

 uninitiated are inclined to imagine, nor are costly implements 

 required for the work. Besides a thin-bladed knife the only 

 tools required are needles of various sizes mounted in handles 

 and a pair of delicate-pointed forceps. Our correspondent in- 

 quires what kind of microscope one must use for examining 

 flowers. The reply is, Not the compound microscope. Any 

 hand-magnifying glass, a pocket lens of two-inch or one-inch 

 focus, or, still better, a glass of two lenses of different focus, will 

 be found useful. The most convenient of these pocket lenses 

 we are acquainted with is that known asSayre's hand-dissecting 

 microscope, which folds up like a jack knife and is so arranged 

 that it is readily held in the hand holding the object under ex- 

 amination, thus leaving the other hand free to manipulate dis- 

 secting instruments. Some students get along very nicel}' with 

 a good tripod lens, which they mount on a cigar box provided 

 with a glass stage and a piece of mirror glass fixed at a proper 

 angle. 



More satisfactory than all these, however, are those simple 

 dissecting microscopes made particularly for this and similar 

 purposes and which are to be found in the shops. They con- 

 sist of adjustable double or triple lenses, stage and reflector, and 

 are to be had at a very moderate price, usually about two and a 

 half or three dollars. One of these instruments consists of a 

 block of wood large enough to stand firmly, the ends of which 

 are beveled so as to make convenient hand rests; in a recess in 

 one side of this block is a fixed mirror, while a moveable glass- 

 stage-plate over the mirrors covers the recess. An upright 

 metallic rod is fixed in the block and on this the magnifier with 

 two lenses slides up and down. 



There is another very desirable instrument of this category 

 more compact and portable than the foregoing. It consists of a 

 small lxHx4 inch box with sliding cover. After removing; the 



