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TECHNIQUE 49<br />
Allen's, modification of Bouin's (Seyfert, 1927; Evans, 1933, 1937), and<br />
Nawaschin's (D. T. Wang, 1934; Western, 1936 b) fixatives have been used for<br />
smuts. A method for demonstrating nuclei in the promycelium first used by<br />
Kniep (1921) has been adopted with only slight modifications. The following<br />
details are taken from Hanna (1929). A thin film of 1 per cent, malt agar is<br />
spread over a sHde and spores are dusted on the surface with a camel's-hair brush.<br />
The slides are inverted over glass rods in a Petri dish containing a few drops of<br />
distilled water. At the desired stage of germination the material is fixed in<br />
Flemming's weaker fluid (15 minutes). The fixative is removed by adding a few<br />
drops of distilled water and sucking up the excess liquid with filter-paper. To<br />
avoid washing off the spores during staining the sHdes are passed through a bath<br />
of ether and then into a 0-2 per cent, solution of collodion made up with equal<br />
parts of alcohol and ether. Others (Harper, 1899) have germiaated the spores in<br />
beerwort in a watch glass, and used egg albumen to fix them to the shde. The<br />
liquid, which should be turbid with germinating spores, is taken up in a fine<br />
capillary tube and discharged into a larger droplet of the fixative. The spores<br />
settle on the film of egg albumen, and the hquid is allowed to evaporate, but not<br />
to dry out completely, before the shde is passed on to the alcohols. The fixative<br />
is not washed out.<br />
For a study of the cytoplasm D. T. Wang (1934) found the best fixative was<br />
le Regaud, consisting of 3 per cent, potassium bichromate (four parts) and 40 per<br />
cent, commercial formalin (one part).<br />
STAINS<br />
Harper (1899) used the triple stain^ for nuclei in the promycehum, but<br />
found a 1 per cent, solution of methyl green better for staining nuclei in spores<br />
already in possession of a thick wall. Most workers since Harper have used<br />
Heidenhain's haematoxylon. No recognized technique exists for treating the<br />
nuclei of smuts with a quick-acting fixative followed immediately by acetocarmine<br />
or similar dye, as in the method used for pollen and macerated tissue. In<br />
preliminary tests at Aberystwyth dividing nuclei in the promycelia of U. hordei<br />
were stained red by lacmoid,^ and this type of reagent deserves further trial for<br />
the nuclei of smuts.<br />
Metachromatic granules in the vacuome have been demonstrated by means of'<br />
neutral red, cresyl blue, and Delafield's haematoxylon. AniUne fuchsin, with a<br />
counter-stain of light green, stained the chondriosomes bright red in material<br />
fixed in Meves reagent (Yen, 1937).<br />
For detailed observations on parasitic mycelium sections of plant tissue<br />
should be 3-5 /x. Triple and Heidenhain's were used by Blizzard (1926), safranin<br />
and fast green by Evans (1933) for Urocystis cepulae, thionin and orange G for<br />
Ustilago may Ms by Walters (1934).<br />
The general distribution of mycelium in the host can be demonstrated in hand<br />
sections of material fixed in 70 per cent, alcohol and stained by lactophenol<br />
cotton blue or in microtome sections, 10-12 /^t, by aniline gentian violet wjth a<br />
counter-stain of Bismarck brown. Take the slides from 70 per cent, alcohol and<br />
^ For stains and fixatives see Plant Microtechnique, Johansen. McGraw-Hill, 1940.<br />
^ See The Handling o/ Chromosomes, C. D. Darlington & L. F. La Cour. Allen and Unwin,<br />
1942. 165 pp.<br />
D