HISTORY OF ROOT-KNOT. 9 



this trouble in the hite eighties and early nineties. The first extensive 

 investigation in tliis country was undertaken by Dr. J. C. Neal/ 

 of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, for the Division of 

 Entomology of the United States Department of Agriculture. Omng 

 to lack of access to literature he did not identify it wdth the pest 

 previously describetl in Europe, but gave it the name Anguillula 

 arenaria. Dr. N. A. C'obb,^ then of New South Wales, in the absence 

 of specimens from America, provisionally accepted Neal's species 

 as distinct from the European species, renaming the former 

 Tylenchus arenarius and the latter T. radicicola. He described the 

 injury caused by it in New South Wales, and gave recommenda- 

 tions as to treatment. In 1889 Prof. G. F. Atkinson, then connected 

 with the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, at Auburn, Ala., described 

 the disease, paying special attention to the life history of the parasite, 

 which he correctly identified with the European species. In 1898 

 Stone and Smith, of the Hatch Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 published the most complete account yet written of the treatment 

 of the trouble in greenhouses, at the same time giving some excellent 

 illustrations of the parasite in various stages of development. 



In 1892 Goldi described a nematode parasitic on the roots of coffee 

 in Brazil under the name Meloidogyne exigua. This proved subse- 

 quently to be identical ^\dth Heterodera radicicola. Finally, in 1901, 

 Lavergne, evidently misled by an erroneous statement as to the 

 dimensions of Heterodera radicicola, described tliis species from Chile 

 as Anguillula vialae. 



The foregoing is by no means a complete list of the publications 

 on the subject but embraces the papers that bear on the question 

 of its synonymy and its occurrence in this country. 



The synonymy of the causal parasite is, then, as follows: 



Heterodera radicicola (Greef) Miiller, 1883. 

 Syn. Anguillula radicicola Greef, 1872. 

 viarioni Cornu, 1879. 

 arenaria Neal, 1889. 

 vialae Lavergne, 1901. 

 Heterodera javanica Treub, 1885. (?) 

 Tylenchus arenarius Cobb, 1890. 

 radicicola Cobb, 1890. 

 Meloidogyne exigua. Goldi, 1892. 



The writer's investigations of the subject were begun in 1900, 

 but were soon interrupted for a period of years. Not until 1905 

 was the work resumed in earnest and pursued with various inter- 

 ruptions until its completion. The work was done partly at Washing- 

 ton, D. C, but mamly at Miami, Fla., at the Subtropical Laboratory 

 and Garden of the Bureau of Plant Industry, and at Monetta, S. C, 



I Neal, 1889. 2 Cobb, 1S90. 



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