Hi Mark, Thanks, will try it on the big metal knife used to section the fruits, but using disposable gloves and plastic implements worked really well, 2 classes came up with an average seed count in the high 300's per fruit. I also had them put newspaper on the desks to keep the latex off the desks. It works well as a lab, the students get really into it, b/c the fruits are so weird and the counting takes some time, giving the students time to ask a lot of questions. They also have to get the "technique" of extracting the seeds, which requires breaking up the sections and squeezing the seeds out. I then have them do calculations of fruit and seed set per tree, per acre, etc, and then research on the net the extinct megafauna that apparently dispersed the fruit. I tell them that they are probably the only students doing a lab on this tree in the whole country. Ernie In a message dated 10/17/2008 9:53:28 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, markmazerandfm13@earthlink.net writes: gloves are >best as the latex is hard to remove and itchy to some. It also destroyed our >dissection scalpels, they latex won't wash off with soap and water, one needs >nasty stuff like acetone to get it off the blades, but then the plastic >handles are weakened. So this year I am going to use a large knife to quarter the >fruits, and plastic disposable knives for the students to pick out the seeds. > Ernie: Try mineral oil (or peanut butter, but that might prove problematic in your school setting) to remove the sticky substance from the scalpels. Old fashioned "orange sticks", used to manipulate cuticles during a manicure, were made from osage orange wood. Cheers, Mark Mazer Hertfor4d, North Carolina, USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ **************New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out (http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000002)