Staining cap cuticle with congo red dye

Field Mycology Volume 7(1), January 2006 The preface acknowledges help from an extensive list of mycologists, but only goes to emphasize the enormous amount of work it must have taken to collate all this information. Charles Aron apologises to his family for absenting himself for long hours in the study. I hope he has managed to persuade them that it was time very well spent. Every mycologist in Wales will need this book, but they aren’t exactly a large army. Anyone in Britain with an interest in the ecology of the species they find should be glad to have available 300 pages of precise information about where and when and with what some 2500+ species have been recorded. Look and see if the species you have newly identified from your neck of the woods is included. And if it appears never to have been recorded in all the varied habitats of North Wales, check it again. If you are sure you are right, preserve the material. One day it could provide a significant entry in your own local mycota! Alick Henrici The Mushroom Poems by Joyce Hodgson Available from the author at 43 Ashdown Avenue, Durham DHl lDB Price £2 (inc. p&p). A self-published pamphlet of nine short nature poems does not, on the face of it, inspire confidence. I was loth to review it. Pretentious or twee or what? Thankfully it is none of the above. These are real poems, quirky products of a sharply observant eye, coming in an elegant pamphlet adorned with a fine photo by Alan Hills of Boletus torosus, at a price that must hardly cover costs. Definitely recommended. Alick Henrici

MORE TIPS AND TECHNIQUES Examining cheilocystidia At Henry Beker’s course on Hebeloma he said that in order to measure cheilocystidia (cystidia on the gill edge) mounting in 5% KOH tends to loosen the hyphae. Gently tapping with the ‘rubber end’ of a pencil separates the cheilocystidia quite well so that you can both see the shape and measure them. It is difficult to see the shape of their bases when they are still on the gill edge and mixed among basidia and other cells. Anne Andrews Staining cap cuticle with congo red dye Frequently when using congo red as a stain and slide mountant there will be an excess of dye. The red-stained tissues will not contrast

sufficiently well with the red liquid in which it is mounted.You can try flushing out excess dye by adding water or 10% ammonia to the edge of the coverslip and then using filter paper on the opposite edge to draw the fluid through the mount, but this is time consuming and not always very successful. A better technique is to add a drop of congo red directly to the cap surface, wait about thirty seconds for the dye to penetrate, blot dry, then make a slide mount of the stained scalp tissue in water. There will be very little excess dye in the mount and the tissues will stand out clearly against the transparent background fluid. Geoffrey Kibby

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