752 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. (Vol.38 



a very good average of the demand of each industry and the demand for each 

 kind of wood. All imported woods used by factories are included in the 

 statistics. 



DISEASES OF PLANTS. 



Embryomas in plants (produced by bacterial inoculations), E. F. Smith 

 (Bui. Johns Hopkins Hosp., 28 (1917), No. S19, pp. 277-294, P^- 28, fig. 1).— 

 Having continued to experiment since reporting previously on the relation of 

 crown gall of plants to human cancer (E. S. R., 35, p. 545), the author offers 

 further data on the production by bacterial inoculation of anomalous crown 

 galls, which are considered as atypical teratoid tumors. 



Such (embryonal) tumors have now been produced by the author bn plants 

 of 16 genera in 15 families. All that is necessary is to introduce the crown 

 gall bacteria into the growing tissues of susceptible species in the vicinity of 

 totipotent cells, which may be either dormant axillary buds or meristematic 

 cells, remote from leaf axils and buds or bud anlage, these cells having the 

 potentiality of germ cells whether they be somatic or germinal as regards origin. 

 The principal genera used for the work here reported were Nicotiana and 

 Pelargonium. 



The present paper reports the result of efforts to produce hyperplasias in the 

 middle of internodes remote from the usual points of origin of buds and shoots ; 

 to determine under what conditions tumors can be made to grow as ordinary 

 sarcomata destitue of teratoid elements or to produce roots, leafy shoots, floral 

 abortions, and mixtures of these ; to determine what particular tissues may give 

 rise to teratoids, and what can produce only sarcomata; to record photo- 

 graphically the inception, progress, and rapid proliferation and decay of these 

 tumors; to demonstrate by photomicrographs the embryonic and fragmentary 

 nature of deep-lying teratoid elements; and to show the existence of jumbled 

 sarcomatous elements in their vicinity. Records were also obtained on fascia- 

 tion and related abnormalities; on variation in the rate of tumor growth; on 

 secondary infections ; on the failure of tumors, after once starting, to continue 

 to grow; and on the germicidal effect of collodion used to cover the wounded 

 surface after bacterial inoculation. 



The British species of Phomopsis, W. B. Grove (Rop. Bot. Gard. Kerc. Bui. 

 Misc. Inform., No. 2 {1911), pp. 49-73, pis. 2).— The two features considered 

 most distinctive of the genus Phomopsis are the permanent sporophores and 

 the nature of the pycnidium, the latter bearing little resemblance to that of a 

 typical Phoma. The four chief accounts given of the genus by other authors 

 since Saccardo are noted. The British list, which is more or less descriptive, 

 includes 76 species. This is followed by a list of 21 species found elsewhere, 

 and this by a discussion in this relation of Phoma aspnragi and Cytospora stic- 

 tostoma. A list of host plants is also given. 



[Cotton rust investig-ations in Texas], E. W. Olh'e {Brooklyn Bot. Gard. 

 Rec, 6 {1917), No. 4, pp. 154-158).— The author investigated a sudden out- 

 break of cotton rust which was violent during May and June, 1917, in southern 

 Texas, having spread supposedly from Mexico. The effects as noted some time 

 after the violence of the attack had passed are briefly described. The crops in 

 the area affected suffered a loss of probably from 20 to 70 per cent. Several 

 rusted grasses v.-ere collected for examination, as the rust is thought to utilize 

 some wild plant or plants as alternate hosts. 



It. is considered probable that the rust in question occurs sporadically every 

 season, perhaps in many localities. The restricted area affected suggests that 

 the infection of the grass host which is supposed to carry the alternate stage 



