261 



The Poisoning of Birds by Cassia bicapsularis. 



The Queensland Agricultural Journal Vol. XII, December,. 

 1919 contains an account of the poisoning of birds by two species 

 of the genus Cassia {Leguminosae). One of them Cassia bicap- 

 sularis,. Linn., a native of tropical America is not unfrequently 

 introduced into cultivation on account of its rather large masses of 

 bright yellow flowers. Specimens of this plant in the Singapore 

 Gardens' Herbarium were collected on the Race Course Eoad, 

 Penang, and it is quite possible this species is growing in cultiva- 

 tion or as an escape in other localities. 



Mr. White concludes his account with the remarks that " In 

 the eases liere quoted, there seems no doub.t that the species of 

 Cassia referred to could definately be blamed as the cause of the 

 deaths of the birds in each ; and it would further seem that the 

 fairly numerous charges of stock poisoning made against various 

 species of Cassia in (Queensland may be more correct than pre- 

 viously imagined. This, however, is a matter that can only be as- 

 certained bv future investiL'^ations." 



T. F. C. 



A New Source of Plant Food. 



Under the above somewliat misleading title an article in the 

 " Journal of Heredity " Vol. X, Xo. 7 draws attention to plants 

 which gather nitrogen and store it after the well known manner 

 of the bacterial nodules of the Leguminosae plants. In the present 

 case however the plants are members of the Bubiaceae and store the 

 nitrogen in small nodules in the leaves instead of on the roots^ 

 The leaf nodules contain colonies of a non-motile, nitrogen bacte- 

 rium, known as Myco-bacterium ruhiacearum. The 'two plants 

 quoted Fsi/choiria bacieriophiJa and Pavetla Zimmennanniana are 

 not recorded from Malaya but it is stated that probably other 

 liubiaeeous plants have the same habits. The article continues,, 

 " These bacteria almost invariably (inhabit the micropyle of the 

 young seed, and, when the latter germinates, grow through certain 

 stomata of the young leaves and into the intra-cellular spaces form- 

 ed in the leaf-tissues around these stomata. Cavities are formed 

 through the growth of the (epidermal cells which later close entirely 

 and make bacterial nodules which are deeply imbedded in the leaf 

 tissues. A single leaf (may have several dozen of these symbiotic 

 bacterial nodules. Faber was able, by treating the seeds with hot 

 water and a sublimate solution to kill the inhabiting myco-bacteria,. 

 and later, to infect part of the seedlings grown from these seeds 

 with pure cultures of the bacterium. The artificially infected 

 seedlings grown in soil free from combined nitrogen grew well and 

 remained healthy for four months whereas those not so infected 

 turned yellowish-white and died in three or four weeks. The 

 plants from unsterilized seeds produced leaves bearing many more 

 bacterial nodules than did those from sterilized seeds which \vere- 

 later artificially inoculated. 



