GENERAL REMARKS ON STAINING 
75 
The best advice that can be given, not only to the beginner but 
to the investigator is this: Master a few stains. For nuclear phe¬ 
nomena, strive for perfection in the use of Haidenhain’s iron-alum 
haematoxylin; then, if you can afford the time, practice the safranin, 
gentian-violet, orange combination. For vascular anatomy, learn to 
stain xylem with safranin; and, for a contrast, stain cellulose walls with 
Delafield’s haematoxylin, gentian-violet, light green or anilin blue. 
For filamentous algae and fungi, master the iron-alum haematoxylin 
method; and then try the Magdala-red and anilin-blue combination. 
Do not pass judgment against a standard method or even a new 
method just because you fail to get results at the first trial. After 
you have become proficient with the iron-alum haematoxylin for 
mitotic figures, you are sure to fail if you try the same procedure with 
Rhizopus; but, nevertheless, the stain is just as good for Rhizopus 
as for figures in pollen mother-cells or root-tips. 
Permanent preparations are an absolute necessity for the greater 
part of most advanced work, but let us not imagine that we cannot 
examine anything until we have made a permanent mount. It 
would be impossible to make a permanent mount of the rotation of 
protoplasm. It is better for many purposes to look at motile spores 
while they are moving. Use Spirogyra while it is fresh and green, 
and use permanent preparations only to bring out nuclei and other 
details which are not so easily seen in living material. Examples 
might be multiplied. 
