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A Combined Alginate/Carbowax Method of Making Serial Sections of Lichens

The use of water-soluble polyethylene glycols ('carbowaxes') for the preparation of serial sections has been discussed by several authors (e.g. Van Home and Zopf, 1951; Wade, 1952). Sections made from blocks of carbowax do not, however, adhere well to the slides, and consequently most microscopists prefer paraffin wax for serial sections, while they use a freezing microtome in order to produce single sections.A reasonably reliable carbowax method for serial sectioning of lichens is outlined below, including the use of an alginate gel in order to orientate the specimens in the correct position for the microtome knife. The sections are affixed to the slide with parlodion, stained with a solution of trypan blue in 70% alcohol, dehydrated with absolute alcohol, and mounted in euparal (or a similar alcohol-soluble mounting medium).The procedure includes the following steps, some of which will be discussed in greater detail below: