130 Botany 



BACTERIA IN RELATION TO PLANT DISEASES. 



No. 27. SMITH, ERWIN F. Bacteria in Relation to Plant Diseases. 



Vol. I, quarto, xii+285 pages, 31 pis., 146 figs. Published 1905. Price 

 $4.00. 



An outline of methods of investigation of bacterial diseases of plants in the 

 laboratory, field, and greenhouse is given, with figures and descriptions of various 

 pieces of apparatus and of various diseases ; among the latter : Pear and apple 

 blight; brown rot of potato, tomato, and tobacco; walnut blight; wilt of cucumber 

 and melon; leaf-stripe of broom-corn; black-spot of the plum; larkspur disease; 

 angular leaf-spot of cotton; soft rot of cucumber; black-rot of cabbage and turnip; 

 Stewart's disease of sweet corn; iris rhizome rot; olive tubercle. A bibliography 

 of general bacteriology exclusive of plant diseases is included and is arranged 

 under 57 heads ; it gives brief abstracts of some of the papers, and the chronological 

 arrangement shows at a glance the development of the subject. 



. Vol. II. History, General Considerations, Vascular Diseases. Quarto, 



vm+368 pages, 22 plates, 149 figures. Published 1911. Price $5.00. 

 Volume II, although intended primarily for plant pathologists, contains much 

 of interest to the general reader. To the student it gives, in easily understood 

 phraseology, authentic descriptions, methods, and definitions. It is the result of 

 personal research of the author and his assistants through a long series of years. 

 The first 200 pages are devoted to a general discussion of the problems of plant 

 bacteriology, such as the supposed normal occurrence of bacteria in plants; bacteria 

 on the surface of plants; entrance of bacteria into plants; the question of para- 

 sitism; carriers of infection; specific diseases; the experimental production of 

 parasites; manner of infection; reaction of host to parasite; a discussion of the 

 newest ideas on plant tumors, i e., relating them to animal tumors (with some strik- 

 ing illustrations); tissues attacked; solvent action of bacteria; enzymes; resistance 

 to bacterial attack; immunity; symbiosis; cross inoculations with plant and animal 

 parasites; plants as carriers of disease; plant hygiene. Several pages are devoted 

 to germicides and insecticides with abstracts of the more important papers published 

 on these subjects. Chronological bibliographies are also appended. Under symbiosis 

 there is a full account of the root-tubercles of legumes. 



The last 150 pages are devoted to three vascular diseases : wilt of cucurbits, 

 black-rot of cruciferous plants, and the yellow disease of hyacinths. On the first of 

 these diseases little has been published and the author's observations and experi- 

 ments, covering a period of 19 years, are reported in full. Each disease is dis- 

 cussed under the heads : Definition, host plants, geographical distribution, signs, 

 etiology, morbid anatomy, the parasite, treatment, pecuniary losses, history, literature. 

 . Vol. III. Vascular Diseases. Quarto, vm+309 pages, 47 plates (4 col- 

 ored), 155 text figures. Published 1914. Price $5.00. 



This volume deals about equally with diseases of monocotyledons and dicotyle- 

 dons, principally with diseases of sugar-cane and maize and with those of potato, 

 tomato, and tobacco. There is a chapter on a very curious and interesting grass 

 disease, namely that of Dactylis; also chapters on some other little-known European 

 and tropical diseases, including those of the banana. In connection with Cobb's 

 disease of sugar-cane, there is a discussion of the East Indian Sereh and of the 

 South American disease known as Polvillo. A full account is given of Stewart's 

 disease of sweet corn and all the evidence going to show that it is disseminated 

 on the seed. The morphology and cultural characters of Bacterium solanacearum 

 are given in full. The destructive tomato disease, due to Aplanobacter michi- 

 ganense, is also illustrated and distinguished from that due to Bacterium solana- 

 cearum. Growers of tobacco will find a separate chapter on the bacterial wilts of 

 tobacco. Original illustrations have been used, many representing all phases of the 

 disease and the morphology and cultural characters of the parasite. As in volume 

 II the results given depend in most cases primarily on the author's own researches, 

 but the literature on each disease is carefully reviewed, and that difficult to obtain 

 is abstracted in full, when it is of special interest, as in case of the copious Dutch 

 East Indian literature on the tobacco wilt. The chronological bibliographies show- 

 ing the historical development of each subject are continued. 



