l8 9 1 -] Anatomical and Physiological Researches. 305 



become a watery mass inclosed by the skin, similar to the 

 cucumber from which the bacteria were taken for inoculation. 

 At the time of the experiments some boxes of young tomato 

 plants were close at hand, and into the centre of one of these 

 a decaying cucumber was placed. In six hours some of the 

 stems of the tomato plants six inches in height had rotted off 

 close to the ground, where the liquid from the decaying fruit 

 had come in contact with the young plants. In ten hours all 

 the plants in the vicinity of the decaying cucumber were de- 

 stroyed. Drops of the virus placed in the leaf axil of other 

 plants quickly induced decay and death of the parts. 



The virus from a cucumber was also used upon potato vines 

 in the same manner as upon the squashes, but both the ex- 

 treme age of the plants and the dry weather may have been 

 unfavorable, as the decay was slow and comparatively harm- 

 less. Healthy tubers, however, when inoculated with the 

 cucumber bacteria rotted with that rapidity characteristic of 

 the bacterial decay of the potato. In all cases the tuber be- 

 came of a pasty softness, and gave off a most unpleasant odor. 

 This decaying substance when taken back to fresh fruit of the 

 cucumbers continued to produce rapid decay. 



Rutgers College, New Brunswick , N. J. 



Interesting anatomical and physiological researches 



The leaves of aquatic monocotyledons. 



M 



noteworthy memoir 1 on the leaves of some aquatic monocoty- 

 ledons. To the physiologist this contribution to a little 

 known department of botanical science is no less interesting 

 than to the morphologist. The studies of the author have 

 been principally upon the Potamogetonacece (see AschersoiVs 



monograph in Engler and 



Pjh 



familicn), and for the forty-eight species examined he an- 

 nounces that the histological characters of the leaf alone will 

 be sufficient for identification. He finds, moreover, in Zostc- 



1 Ann. Sci. Nat., Botanique, 7. 13, pp. 102-296; Sur Us feuUUs de quelpus 



wonoiotyledones aquatiques. 



