Materials Required

Real Lab Procedure

Pluck one fresh leaf of a four-o’clock plant.
Take two watch glasses and pour some distilled water into the both watch glasses.
Split the leaf from the four-o’clock plant obliquely.
Take the peel from the upper surface of the leaf using the forceps.
Place the peel into a watch glass containing water.
Take another peel from the lower surface of the leaf using the forceps.
Place the peel into the other watch glass containing water.
Using a dropper, take few drops of Safranin solution and put it into the two watch glasses.
Take two clean glass slides and place the leaf peel on the slides one by one, using a brush.
Take a blade and cut a small rectangle or square piece from each peel.
Take some glycerine using a dropper and put one drop of glycerine on both slides.
Take a cover slip and place it gently on the peel with the help of a needle.
Take the glass slide and place it under compound microscope.
Observe under the microscope.
Count the number of stomata in the peels of both upper and lower epidermis of the leaf appearing in the microscopic field.

You can select the type of view from the ‘Select view’ drop down list. To view the leaf structure, select the 'Binocular view' .
You can select the slide containing the leaf from the ‘Select sample’ drop down list.
The power of the lens can be changed by selecting the required lens power from the drop down list ‘Select objective lens’.
To coarse focus on the tissue, you can move the tube up and down by clicking on the ‘Coarse adjustment’ right and left arrow.
To achieve a fine and sharp focus, you can move the tube very slowly by clicking on the ‘Fine adjustment’ right and left arrow.
You can move the slide to observe each part of the sample by clicking on the directional arrow of the ‘Slide adjustment’.
Count the number of stomata and epidermal cells in the specimen and enter the values into the corresponding text boxes on the left pane.
It will calculate the stomatal index and show into ‘Stomatal Index’ textbox.
To repeat the experiment, click the ‘Reset’ button.

The number of stomata is greater in the lower epidermis, and fewer are present in the upper epidermis of the leaf taken from a four-o’clock plant.