10/15/05 - Earlier, I sent Pam Soltis BA material to Florida. She gave them to Dr. David M. Jarzen, pa;ynologist, of the Florida Museum of Natural History. He looked at BA with pollen, spores, and plant inclusions in them and found them all to be bodies of organic matter, bearing no organized shape, nor any resemblance to the pollen and spores I have seen during my career. This does not mean that these do not bear any significant specimens of something. "It is just that I do not see them as palynomorphs." He stated, "You have marked one specimen as 'spore with spines'. "I could not see a spore let alone spines," he stated. "Am I missing something, or are you using special microscope techniques?" Dr. Jarzen is exactly right. It took me quite a while, and trying many different methods, before I hit on the best way to see inclusions. I was really sorry I didn't explain this to Dr. Jarzen right away, but from past experiences I have found scientists get mad if you tell them how to look into a scope. I am very thankful for Dr. Jarzen"s time and help with this.

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