Having cut a section it is hardly likely that, at this our first attempt, it will be good enough to put under the microscope, so we will continue to cut section after section till we have a dozen or more from these we can select the most transparent for examination. The sections of such material as a stem should be kept moist and to do so we will place them in a watch glass containing water. It is often easier, also, to cut our sections if the razor be moistened with water, at anyrate the moisture prevents the sections from adhering to the razor. The sections should be removed from razor to watch glass and from watch glass to slide, by means of a brush, never by means of the fingers. The razor of course, should be well dried with a soft rag before it is put away; rust, besides being unsightly, ruins the cutting edge. If we are really anxious to cut our own sections, and every good microscopist does so, we shall return to the operation again and again, even cutting objects which we have no desire to examine, for the sake of the practice. We shall soon reach a stage where our razor will be dulled and require stropping and the efficient stropping of a razor is, to many people, a more difficult operation than the cutting of sections. We may point out here, that all sections are not quite so easy to cut as the one we have taken as our example. Some objects are so soft that they need hardening with chemicals before they can be cut, some are so hard that to attempt to cut them would ruin the edge of the razor, though it is wonderful what hard substances may be cut when we have had a little experience; some are so delicate that they must needs be buried in melted wax, then object and wax are cut together and later the wax is separated from the section. Leaves and very small stems may be sectioned by the beginner, as easily as larger stems. For such objects little sticks of pith are sold as holders. Having cut of our piece of leaf from which we wish to derive a section, we make a slit, with our dissecting knife, down the middle of one end of a piece of pith. The piece of leaf is then placed in the slit and by holding the pith at the sides our piece of leaf is held firmly. Sections are cut through pith and leaf, and the two are floated in water, when the thin slices of pith will float away from the leaf sections.