As a member of the Postal Microscopical Society I am lucky enough to receive a box of a dozen slides every 3 weeks for my inspection. Each box is accompanied by a notebook in which those who have had the box before me write notes about the slides, frequently illustrating their notes with drawings and photographs, all of which adds to the interest in receiving a box.
In the latest box received was a good mixture of slides from several sources but the one that really caught my attention was a transverse section of the stem of the Fringed Water Lily, Nymphoides. This section had been stained with safranin (red) and fast green, which help highlight the structure. Showing up in bright red are some spiky, crytalline structures called idioblasts. Their function is obscure but they seem to occur only where other cells branch.
Here is a picture taken with the video camera and 4x objective plus 0.7x C-mount adapter.
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