2o6 British Fitno-i, 



<b 



On leaves of Phcenix d act y J if era and Cltamceroiis 

 humiliSy in conservatories. 



Scldnzia leguminosarum, Frank. 



The presence of tubercles varying in size from 1 

 mm. to 1 cm. or more have for a long time been 

 known to occur on the roots of many leguminous 

 plants^ in fact these swellings are so common that it 

 is a difficult matter to find a specimen of the ordinary 

 leguminous plants, as peas^ beans, vetches, the 

 roots of which are free from such tubercles. A curious 

 feature is that although considerable attention has 

 been paid to these malformations, no one has suc- 

 ceeded in showing that their presence is in any way 

 injurious to the plant. Various opinions have been 

 entertained as to the cause of these tubercles, the 

 component cells of which are abnormally large and 

 contain myriads of very minute corpuscles of variable 

 form, considered bv some authors as of a bacterioid 

 nature, by others as approaching the genus Plasmodlo- 

 phora, a myxomycete causing the tubercular swellings 

 known as ^^ fingers and toes " on turnip roots. Pro- 

 fessor Marshall Ward has demonstrated the presence 

 of hypha^ in these swellings, and also considers the 

 hyphte to originate from the germination of one of 

 the minute corpuscles present in the abnormall}^ large 

 cells, and the same author further considers that in 

 all probability the corpuscles are produced in immense 

 numbers from the blind, more or less tufted ends of 

 hypha3 penetrating the cells. It is clear from the 

 description given that the organism cannot belong 

 either to the Bacteria or the 3Ii/xogastres. Ward^s 



