* 
WEEN. LETTERS. 
A READY SUPPLY OF VAUCHERIA. 
TEACHERS of botany are often put to much trouble in securing good fruit- 
ing material of the stock alge at times of the year when material cannot be 
obtained out of doors. A good supply of Vaucheria can be obtained at any 
time with very little trouble. Five or six weeks before the material is needed 
some Vaucheria should be obtained in any greenhouse from the surface of 
the soil of potted plants, and brought to the laboratory without disturbing the 
mats. After removing as much of the soil as possible the mats should be 
thrown into a jar half full of water and put where the sun may shine upon 
them. In the experiments made it was found that after a week considerable 
change in the color of the filaments had occurred, and after five or six weeks 
the material was found in excellent condition, showing both methods of 
reproduction, zoospores in all stages of germination, and the vegetative body 
also thriving better than if grown on soil. In this way a supply free from 
other algze and from sand, and in amounts sufficient to supply classes of over 
two hundred students, was obtained at short notice. The species experimented 
with was Vaucheria sessilis.— BRUNO A. GOLDBERGER, Chicago. 
STAINING TECHNIQUE. 
Basic fuchsin (1 per cent. aqueous solution) can be very satisfactorily sub- 
stituted for safranin in the Flemming triple stain, and at least in many miei 
gives a more brilliant red. The same elements seem to take the fuchsin as 
take the safranin. The stain goes through the same manipulations, clear- 
ing, etc., as are used with the F lemming combination, without visible altera- 
tion. Slides are best left in the fuchsin over night and excess extracted with 
35 per cent. alcohol. This extraction is slow enough to be easily controlled. 
—H. F. Roperts, The University of Chicago. 
[MAY 
