I am old enough to remember a day when color changes and contrasts were the heart and soul of chemistry and biochemistry. We also did quite a bit of staring, looking for precipitates and slight color variations. Indeed, my pool chemistry test kit still uses such things.
As for labeling? Bottles, yes. Flasks, frequently. Test tubes, rarely.
I remember some of the hoopla about the treasure hunt. At the time, lots of people were just using brute force, i.e. digging up any piece of public land that someone said Williams once visited. Others theorized that Williams had not actually buried the rabbit but would give it as a prize to whomever solved where it should have been.
The dream of a precolumbian ecosystem is impossible. Never understood why it is tried as anything other than an experiment or curiosity. For example: European Honey Bees.
Went to breakfast a new Le Peep today. Besides the muzak being way loud. The 75 year old couple next to me played rap music as soon as their coffee order was in. I moved tables and the staff laughed for an hour.
As for labeling? Bottles, yes. Flasks, frequently. Test tubes, rarely.
... and while I am here, didn't the Polynesians have a way of navigating the open ocean without the need for tools?
As this (and other Neatorama articles) tells us, bananas do not taste the same as they did 75 years ago. The candies likely taste much like that extinct variety.
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/06/01/say-goodbye-to-bananas-panama-disease-is-coming-back/