On Thu, 22 Jan 2004, Jennifer Barnett wrote:

> Thanks very much for the information. The carrot method sounds
> wonderfully simple but I am sure that the elderberry pith is not

I know that elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) will grow in the
Netherlands, but you can substitute a lot of other firm-but-not-woody
plant stems or petioles for it.  Paeonia is one I've used in a pinch,
for instance-- drier than carrot!  If you're not used to free-hand
sectioning, you can get the thinnest sections by cutting with single
edged razor blades, and lubricating the blade with a drop of water or
alcohol.  You may also want to try several positions for sectioning.
I get the thinnest sections if I hold the material to be sectioned
upright in my left hand, and section with my right, held parallel to
the floor.  Others do better with the material parallel to the floor,
razor perpendicular to the floor.

> available here. But still, perhaps there are other piths which are - so
> that's also useful. The nut & bolt microtome sounds brilliant and I
> would love to receive more details.

I shall ask him.  I think he told me the parts ran about $30 US; while
the hand microtomes that were available here were about $500 and didn't
work as well.

> Botany has to offer. Could you perhaps recommend suppliers of teaching
> aids such as microscope preparations of plant fibres?

When I was teaching, I never had money to buy reference microscope
slides of something as simple as textile fibers -- they're actually
quite easy to make yourself, and we did.

Triarch and Carolina Biological were the main suppliers of prepared
teaching slides when I was teaching.  Triarch is at:
Triarch Incorporated, P.O. Box 98, Ripon, WI 54971-0098.  Tele:
800-848-0810, Fax: 888-848-0810; Carolina Biological is
http://www.carolina.com/  My experience is that Triarch is more
accomodating of requests, but you might be able to strike a better
deal by calling the local botany departments and seeing if they have
a grad student in microscopy who'd be willing to do some custom
work for you.  I'm pretty sure Triarch and Carolina won't have
specialty fibers like quiviut or pina available to them, and you
probably will.

Thanks also, for pointing out the plastic sheets used in forensics...
sounds like a quick and neat way of dealing with fibers.

Kay Lancaster  [log in to unmask]