84 * BOTANICAL GAZETTE [july 



Infiltration with paraffin. — During the first 36 hours in the 

 process of infiltration with paraffin the wood is kept on the paraffin 

 bath, but shortly before the mixture of xylol and paraffin is replaced 

 with pure melted paraffin; both the material and the paraffin mixture 

 are transferred to a flat dish of some kind to facilitate a quick evapora- 

 tion of the xylol and then placed in the bath. At least two or three 

 changes of paraffin are usually desirable. Special care has to be taken 

 at this point, the best results being obtained when such woody or par- 

 tially woody material is carried through the final process of infiltration 

 with paraffin (melting point 52 C.) from 48 to 72 hours. 



Sectioning. — With a proper allowance of time for infiltration, 



refractory 



1 



o u in thickness 



may be cut with a sliding microtome with perfect ease, and a complete 

 series obtained by removing each section, as cut, from the knife and 

 placing it directly upon a slide well coated with albumen fixative and 

 flooded with water. All paraffin sections thus cut and not held in ribbon 

 are likely to curl. To prevent this curling of the section as it comes 

 upon the knife it has been the writer's practice, after flooding the surface 

 of the object and the knife with water (using ice water in warm weather 

 and slightly warmed water in cold weather), to hold a camel's hair 

 brush or preferably the tip of the first finger lightly against the section 

 as it is being cut. The section, unless of considerable size, will then 

 adhere to the moist finger tip and can thus be transferred to the slide 

 without danger of tearing or crushing. With practice sections may 

 be cut and transferred from the microtome knife to the slide very rapidly 

 by this method, and the problem of curling entirely obviated. 



Subsequent stages in the fixing of sections to the slide, removal of 

 paraffin, staining and mounting, follow the usual paraffin schedule. 

 LaDema M. Langdon, University of Chicago. 



CAMPHORINA VS. CINNAMOMUM 



In a short article on the botanical nomenclature of the Pharma- 



> 



copoeia, Farwell 1 proposes to adopt the generic name Camphorma 

 Noronha (1790) in place of Cinnamomum Blume (1825), although the 

 latter, originally proposed by Tournefort, had been used by Linnaeus 

 in the first edition of his Systema in 1735. It is not my object to discuss 

 the validity of this proposed change, but aside from calling attention 



x The Druggists Circular 62:535. x 9i8. The first paper of the series was pub- 

 lished in Botanical Nomenclature of the U.SJP. IX, op. cit. 61:173-176. 1917- 





