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eel-like body quite invisible to the naked eye. The young worms 
soon find their way into the soil, when they at once proceed to 
attack any other rootlets that may be present. Should the rootlets 
not be forthcoming, according to Stone and Smith, they are 
capable of existing for a considerable time without change, 
comes more or less lemon-shaped. At this stage fertilisation 
is supposed to take place, after which the males perish, and the 
stationary females produce numerous eggs in their interior. When 
the eggs are mature the female dies. Sections of a gall at this 
stage shows the more or less spherical bodies of the females 
crowded with eggs, the body showing as a whitish speck to the 
naked eye. Usually several bodies of distended females may be 
seen in one section, as they are more or less gregarious in habit. 
The swollen portions or galls vary much in size on different plants. 
On vine roots they are usually small, rarely exceeding the size of 
a pea; on the tomato they are frequently the size of a marble, 
whereas on some plants the galls are as large as a walnut or even 
larger. ‘The galls are always formed on the root or on some under- 
ground part of the plant. Ina section through a gall the vascular 
bundles and water-conducting vessels will be seen to present a 
contorted and dislocated appearance. When galls are numerous 
on the root, as is usually the case, the root is prevented from 
performing its function of supplying the above-ground portion with 
water containing food substances in solution, consequently the plant 
literally dies of hunger and thirst, as is also the case when the passage 
f water is interrupted by the presence of fungus mycelium in the 
tissues of the root and collar. 
There appears to be little or no discrimination in the choice of a 
tood-plant by nematodes ; Kiihn, a German observer, enumerates a 
list of 180 plants, belonging to 39 orders; amongst these grasses 
are most favoured, 46 species being attacked by eelworms ; 
Leguminosae 33 kinds, &c. orms may be commonly found 
infesting wild grasses in this country, hence the popular idea that 
turf from an old pasture is perfectly free from eelworms and other 
pests, is not necessarily correct. 
In this country cucumbers and tomatoes suffer most severely from 
the ravages of eelworms ; this, however, is not due to any special 
preference on the part of eelworms for these plants, but is simply 
due to the method of cultivation under glass, where the soil becomes 
infected, and only half-hearted measures are adopted for the 
purpose of securing immunity from a pest admittedly difficult to 
exterminate. Among other plants of economic importance attacked 
y H. radicicola are vines, potatoes (tubers), roses, Phloxes and 
Balsams ; less frequently fruit trees are attacked ; but, as already 
stated, in the case of stunting of the foliage, the absence of thriftiness, 
