Introductory Mycology, week IV: Phragmobasidia

[Jack Murphy]

Dear mycetophiles;
   Most introductory mycology texts have these wonderful illustrations of
the various types of phragmobasidia, and upon occasion I've been lucky
enough to make good sections of Tremella and Dacrymyces and to see the real
thing.  Auricularia, however, stumps me.  Does anyone have any suggestions
for techniques for visualizing individual basidia of Auricularia for the
light microscope?  The simpler the method,  the better - this is a teaching
exercise and we don't have the wherewithal to use microtomes,
freeze-fracture, or SEMs...

thanks in advance,

Jack 
******************************************
Dr. John (Jack) Murphy

Dept. of Botany		Dept. of Botany
The Field Museum		University of Wisconsin, Madison
Chicago, IL 60605-2496	Madison, Wisconsin  53706-1381
(312) 922-9410 ext. 722	(608)-262-8644
fax (312) 427-2530		jfmurph1 at facstaff.wisc.edu