1898] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 105 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 



BY L. A. WILLSON. 



Cr,KVEtAND, OHIO. 



Trichia. — On a piece of bark, from the woods, a 

 golden yellow dust was found. Examination with the 

 microscope developed that this dust was entirely com- 

 posed of the threads and spores of trichia. By placing a 

 very small portion of the yellow dust in water on a glass 

 slip, then teasing with needles and mounting in glycerine 

 jelly a very acceptable instructive slide was produced. 

 A good picture of these threads and spores is given on 

 page 32 of ''Fungi" by M. C. Cooke in volume XX of 

 the International Scientific Series. The plant, however, 

 is not a fungus but a Myxomycete belonging to the 

 lowest order of plants the Protophyta. It is described 

 in Bessy's Botany on page 211 where trichia is placed 

 in Order VII, Calonemese. 



A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing. — So is a 

 tyro in microscopy who poses, in court, as an expert. 

 So is a microscopical expert in one department who 

 poses as an expert in another department. So is an 

 expert who for a fee under the guise of being an expert 

 acts as an attorney for one of the parties to a suit. The 

 disagreements and contradictions of microscopists in 

 court is disgraceful. A fixed set of stupid questions 

 are permitted and the scientifically stupid attorney on 

 the other side is generally too obtuse to cross examine 

 so as to elicit the whole truth. 



The Examination of Water.— Fail not in examining: 

 water to examine the specimens on the surface, in the 

 sediment and those suspended. In each stratum a dif- 

 ferent fauna and flora will usually be found. To see 

 bacteria and very minute specimens resort must be had 

 to other means. 



Microscopical Aquaria. — For study and the enter- 



