46 CORN AND GRASS. 
ochrey powdery matter within the stems which are perishing from the 
presence of these Stem HKelworms. 
But as other kinds of Kelworm, in themselves doing no harm, are 
often present with them or in the attacked plants, and are quite 
indistinguishable from them except by very skilled observers, we have 
mostly to rest for certainty as to the nature of the attack on the 
peculiarities of the deformed growths, which are quite enough for all 
practical purposes. 
In the case of Clover ‘‘ Stem-sickness’”’ in the early part of the 
year, the circumstance of the stalks and branches being shorter and 
thicker than in healthy growth, and the buds also themselves being 
much thicker in shape, is characteristic of attack, and probably various 
of the stalks and branches will be found dying or decaying; and the 
Stem Eelworms may be found both in young and mature state in the 
plants, and very numerously in the buds. 
Later on in the season, when the plant is in its summer growth, 
the characteristic malformations are very observable; and I append 
my own description of a bad infestation sent me in July, 1887, from 
the Experimental Farm, Woburn, as in this case I had the advantage 
of the specimens being carefully examined by Dr. J. Ritzema Bos, 
now Director of the Phytopathological Laboratory at Amsterdam, and 
likewise by Dr. J. G. de Man, of Middleburg, and of their skilled 
identifications of the Kelworms present being T. devastatrix, and the 
cause of the peculiar growths. 
In these specimens some of the stems with flowering heads were 
still to be found, but also there was a large number of short barren 
shoots about an inch long, oval in shape, and with the distorted 
growth of leaves then merely forming an imbricated or “ tile-like”’ 
exterior. These shoots were placed closely together, apparently from 
the growth of each shoot having been stopped. 
They varied in number; sometimes as many as five grew on an 
inch length of stem, one at the extremity and two at each side below, 
so as to form together a flat, fan-like mass. I did not find that they 
grew round the central stem. They were not all similar in form of 
diseased growth, but were commonly irregularly and oval or somewhat 
bulb-shaped; but sometimes they were much prolonged, so as to 
resemble what is known as a ‘‘ Duck-necked’’ Onion in shape; and 
sometimes the lower part of the flowering stem was enlarged for an 
inch or two at the base. In various of these shoots I found the 
Eelworms present up to numbers which might be described as 
‘“‘swarming”’ in the palish brown powdery, or rather granular matter 
in the hollow near the base, or other parts of the perishing shoots.* 
* See my ‘ Thirteenth Annual Report on Injurious Insects,’ pp. 3, 4. 
