Or Till- SciHNCE OF Plant Bacteriology 315 



Dr. Smith's " interesting letter regarding bacterial diseases of 

 plants '■ to Dr. Welch has not been found by the autlior. We must 

 be content, therefore, with the knowledge that his letter com- 

 pletely ■' reassured [Welch] on the subject." Tor many years he 

 had recognized the leadership and authority of German botanists, 

 and in his reviews of scientific literature in the American Natuntlist 

 he had shown no prejudice toward work by the Germans. In 

 August 1896,"' in his introduction to his critical reviews of the 

 present state of knowledge concerning bacterial diseases of plants, 

 he had advanced the opinion that "' there are in all probability as 

 many bacterial dis(?ases of plants as of animals." In February 

 1897 '•" his last critical review had been of Dr. Ernst Kramer's 

 study of the wet-rot of potato. Kramer was privat docent in the 

 technical high school at Graz, and his study of the bacteriosis of 

 fodder beets had been earlier reviewed."* During 1896 he had 

 three times ''"' reviewed the recent work of Dr. Oscar Brefeld on 

 the smut fungi. A recent contribution on " Water Pores " "*" by 

 Dr. Anton Nestler had also been reviewed as well as a paper by 

 Leopold Kny of Berlin under the title, " Function of Antho- 

 cyan." '" Under the caption, "' Nitrifying Organisms," "^ he re- 

 examined the discovery by Messrs. Burri and Stutzer of the agri- 

 cultural experiment station at Bonn of a bacillus, in many respects 

 like Winogradsky's organism and which was claimed to change 

 nitrites into nitrates and grow readily in bouillon and on gelatine. 

 This was followed in 1898 by a criticism of O. Zinsser's view that 

 " the root tubercle organism occurs outside of the tubercles in 

 various parts of the plant " ^" in Leguminosae and other important 

 conclusions from w^ork done on this subject at the Botanical Insti- 

 tute of Leipzig. Other reviews during these years of results 

 directly or indirectly attributable to German botanists might be 

 included. For examples, " Spore formation controlled by external 

 conditions," '"^ based on a Botanische Zeitiing paper by Johann 

 Bachmann, coincided in point of time with another review, " Ger- 



^""Amer. Nat. 30(356): 627. 



^Udem 31(362): 123-138. 



'*Uem 30(357): 716 f. 



"Idem 30(350): 137-132; (351): 224-226; (353): 408-409. 



''Idem 30(351): 224. ''Idem 32(377): 365-369. 



"Idem 30(351): 226-228. ^''° Idem 30(349): 63-64. 



'^Idem 30(349): 65-66. 



