648 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. ?.8 



New Japanese fungi. — Notes and translations, I, T. Tanaka {Mycologia, 

 9 {1911), No. 3, pp. 167-172) .—This is the first of a series of papers regarding 

 newly discovered fungi or those which have been described only in the Japa- 

 nese language. Species herein claimed to be new are Valsa (Euvalsa) pau- 

 loxonice on Paulownia ; Marsonia carthami on Carthamus tinctorius; Myco- 

 sphwrella hordicola on wheat and barley ; Scorias c»pitata, Pestolossia thece, 

 and Zitkalia thew on Thea sinensis; and Sclerotinia Jagopyri on Fagopyrum 

 esculentum. A new combination proposed is Ophiochwta (Ophioholus) graminis, 

 now found on rice. 



Chemically induced crown galls, E. F. Smith (Proc. Nat. Acad. Set., S 

 {1917), No. 4. pp. 312-314). — The author has continued studies, the main re- 

 sults of which have been previously noted (E. S. R., 36, p. 747), which were 

 Intended to determine what by-products of the organism Bacterium tumefaciens 

 causally associated with crown gall in plants were the direct cause of the over- 

 growth. His experiments are said to show that this organism produces in very 

 simple culture media aldehyde, ammonia, amins, alcohol, acetone, acetic acid, 

 formic acid, and probably a little cai'bon dioxid, most of these substances being 

 identical with those which are said to start growth in unfertilized eggs of the 

 sea urchin. This action is thought to be purely physical ; that is, due to the 

 withdrawal of water from neighboring cells by increase of osmotic pressure. 



Experiments with all of these products, so far as they have been carried out, 

 gave from young tissues a prompt response in the form of overgrowths, at first 

 with their water dilutions and in later experiments with the vapors merely of 

 these substances. These experiments were successfully made on several plants 

 subject to crown gall, especially on Ricinus, cauliflower, and Lycopersicum. 

 The tumors were small, being caused by only one application of tlie stimulus. 

 It is thought that the continued application of these substances in very dilute 

 form, comparable to the products of the parasite itself, would produce tumors 

 essentially similar to those from crown gall or bacterial inoculations. 



The tumors are either vascularized hyperplasias, mixed hypertrophy and 

 hyperplasia, or simple hypertrophies, their cells being free from chlorophyll, 

 closely compacted, and often 100 times as large as those from which they arose. 

 In the alcohol tumors there was a great increase in the number of cells; that 

 is, a true hyperplasia. Curious vascular displacements and duplications were 

 also obtained, including, in one instance, an entire extra vascular cylinder in 

 the pith of Ricinus. 



Small overgrowths on cauliflower leaves have been recently obtained by the 

 use of formaldehyde or formic acid. 



Cereal smuts, T. H. Sch({)yen {Meddel. Statsentomol. INortcay], No. 8 {1917}, 

 pp. Jf, fig. 1). — A brief discussion is given of the treatment of seed grain for 

 protection against cereal smuts \^ith hot water or with formalin. 



Truck crop diseases and how to control them, R. B. Vaughn {Trans. III. 

 Hart. Sac, n. ser., 50 {1916), pp. 329-333). — This brief discussion includes onion 

 smut, anthracnose, and rots ; cabbage blackleg, black rot, clubroot, and yel- 

 lows ; and some account of protective measures. 



Experiments on the treatment of Rhizoctonia disease of asparagus, B. T. 

 P. Baekek and C. T. Gimingham {Univ. Bristol, Ann. Rpt. Agr. and Hart. Re- 

 search Sta., 1916, pp. 39, 40; Jour. Bath and West and South. Counties Soc., 

 5. ser., 11 {1916-17), pp. 165-167). — In 1915 diseased asparagus plants from a 

 plantation at Badsey were badly attacked and eventually killed by a soil 

 fungus, R. violacea asparagi {R. medicaginis) , causing a rot of roots and 

 crowns. The soil treatments tested in 1916 showed the best results from 2 oz. 

 bleaching powder per square yard, and from 1 oz. creosote, | oz. iron sulphate 

 and 30 oz. lime coming next, and 2 oz. carbolic acid and 2 oz. naphthalin giv- 



