148 Pathologist U. S. Department of Agriculture 



was more absorbed in the study of fungous, than bacterial, diseases 

 of plants. In 1889 Dr. A. Heinz, director of the Botanical-Physio- 

 logical Institut in Agram (Zagreb), Croatia, described the bac-. 

 teriosis of hyacinths {^Bacillus hyancinthi septkus)^^ and his 

 paper, "Zur Kentniss der Rotzkrankheiten der Pflanzen," was 

 published by the Centralblatt fiir Bakteriologie mid Parasiten- 

 kunde in April of that year.^'' In December Smith reviewed in the 

 Journal of Mycology^"'^ J. H. Wakker's "Contributions a la Pa- 

 thologie Vegetale" and discussed his "additional light on the 

 gummosis of the hyacinth," his study of the fungus Peziza tuhe- 

 rosa and its relation to P. bidborum which attacks hyacinths and 

 related Liliaceae, and other matters. But Heinz's paper was not 

 reviewed, although in 1896-1897 when Smith would begin a series 

 of articles on "The Bacterial Diseases of Plants: A Critical Re- 

 view of the Present State of our Knowledge," ^^ he would follow 

 his examination of Wakker's study of the yellow disease of hya- 

 cinths {^Bacillus hyacintJoi, 1883) by an elaboration of Heinz's 

 Bacillus hyac'inth'i septicus. Smith then said that Dr. Heinz did 

 not regard his organism "as in any sense a variety of B. hyacintht 

 Wakker." 



In 1886 there was published in Germany by Die Landwirth- 

 schaftlichen Versnchs-Stationem of Berlin Dr. Adolf Mayer's 

 account " Ueber die Mosaikkrankheit des Tabaks." ^° Owing to 

 the remoteness of its publishing medium, many botanists in the 

 United States, including Smith for several years, did not read 

 this important paper. In 1894, however, the subject having become 

 " one of much interest," he reviewed its contents in the Journal 

 of Alycology,^'^ and in 1892 wrote Mayer evidently to inquire 

 whether as yet he had isolated a pathogenic microorganism from 

 plants affected by the disease. A reply, dated July 23, 1892, was 

 written from the Proefstation der Rijkslandbouwschool at Wagen- 

 ingen, Holland, v/here Mayer was the director. 



In 1879 he had there begun his study of the " variegated leaf 

 disease " v/hich had been troubling tobacco growers of the Nether- 



^'° American Naturalist 31: 34-41, 1897. 



"5 (16): 535-539. 



"V, 4 (Dec, 1889), pp. 224-226. 



"■^ Amer. Nat. 30: 797-804; 912-924, 1896. 



'■'Land. Ver. Stat. 32: 451-467. 



00 



7 (4): 382-385, 1894. 



