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tubers on their roots, and it seems quite well authenticated that 

 there is some connection between these tubers and the produc- 

 tion of nitrogen. Under the direction of Prof Frank, Brunchoist 

 took up the study of these tubers. He says of their history 

 they have been considered everything possible for such a part of 

 a plant to be, viz.: insect-galls, sclerotia, lenticels, vegetative-buds, 

 (which under certain circumstances might grow out,) fungus- 

 galls and finally as albumin builders and reserve holders. This 

 latter view is the one supported by Brunchoist, based upon the 

 result of his experiments and study under Frank. He considers 

 them as normal outgrowths of the plants. Woronin, who studied 

 these bodies previous to the work done by Brunchoist, discov- 

 ered that in the parenchymatic cells of these tubers were little 

 bodies resembling bacteria. Also in certain cells he found fun- 

 gus hyphae, but never in the same cell containing the bacteria- 

 like bodies. 



Now Bruncihoist claims that he has discovered the origin of 

 these little bodies, that they develope out of the living protoplasm 

 of these cells and are not bacteria, but gives them the name bac- 

 teroiden, or bacteria-like bodies, having the form but not the 

 .function of bacteria. He claims that their function is to supply 

 the plant with nitrogen, later detected in its nitrogen-holding 

 fruit, and that they dissolve and are passed upward in the sap- 

 current to the upper part of the plant 



While these investicrations have been <joingf on in Berlin other 



botanists have by no means remained idle. Hellriegel, who is 

 well known in this controversy, takes a position opposing 

 Frank, and contrary to the conclusions of Brunchoist. 



In the Berichte of June 25th is an article by Frank, in which 

 he gives about the sum of Hellriegel's opinions as follows: Hell- 

 riegel claims to have proven by his experiments that the Legum- 

 inosas find in the free nitrogen of the air a source of food which 

 the Gramine^ cannot make use of. The Leguminosse have not 

 however, of themselves, the power to assimilate this free nitro- 



\ ^ 



M 



ismen " to accomplish this act of assimilation for them, and that 

 these organisms live in a symbiotic relation with these leguminous 

 plants. 



