414 . Report op the Mycologist of the 



tiired. It was unable to gain access to the vessels of unruptured 

 bundles because of its inability to pass through the intervening 

 parenchyma. 



IDENTITY OF THE GERM. 



It is by no means certain that this germ has not been pre- 

 viously described and named. Systematic bacteriology is, at 

 present, in such a state of confusion that, even with access to all 

 of the literature, one can scarcely avoid frequently falling into 

 error. The writer, unfortunately, has had access to only a small 

 part of the systematic literature and, therefore, it would be mani- 

 festly injudicious for him to give the organism a name which 

 may, perhaps, only serve to burden the synonymy. Hereafter it 

 will be referred to simply as the sweet corn bacillus. It is hoped 

 that the foregoing description is sufficient for the complete iden- 

 tification of the organism, so that one having the necessary 

 facilities may find no difficulty in referring it to its proper species 

 if it has already been described. 



While it is possible that the organism has been previously de- 

 scribed, its habit of producing disease in sweet corn has surely 

 not been reported heretofore. Burrill's corn germ. Bacillus 

 cloaccB* Jordan, the only other bacterium described as producing 

 disease in Zea mays, is undoubtedly different. It attacks field 

 corn while the sweet corn bacillus attacks only sweet corn; plants 

 attacked by the sweet corn bacillus do not turn yellow and there 

 is no moist rot of the ears; the sweet corn bacillus is conspicuous 

 in the fibro-vascular bundles and exudes in yellow, viscid drops 

 from the cut ends of stems, while neither is true of Burrill's 

 germ; on agar, the sweet corn bacillus is yellow, while Burrill's 

 germ on this medium is grayish. There are still other points of 

 difference but those mentioned are sufficient to show that the 

 two organisms belong to different species. 



♦It appears that Burrill never gave his corn germ a name and yet Ludwig (Lehrbuch 

 4er niederen Kryptogamen, p. 95) calls It Badllna sccalcs (Burrill), and Russell (Bac- 

 teria in their Relation to Vegetable Tissue, p. 36) uses the name Bacillus zcw Burrill. 

 The studies of Dr. Theobald Smith (The Wilder Quarter-Century Book, 1893, p. 214) 

 and of Dr. V. A. Moore (Agricultural Science, VIII, pp. 368-385) have shown that it Is 

 Identical with Bacillus cloacw Jordan (Report Mass. State Board of Health; Water 

 Supply and Sewerage, Part II, 1890, p. 836) which Is probably the proper name to 

 apply to it. 



