The Microscope. 119 



EDrroR;s, 



DEPARTMENT 



^^*S 



IT was with considerable surprise that the writer learned that 

 there is a distinct disease of the roots and subterranean 

 stems of certain plants in the southern part of the countryi 

 <3aused by the presence of an Anguillala within the tissues, a 

 worm closely related to the paste worm and the vinegar eel. An 

 interesting paper on the subject has recently been published in 

 Bulletin No. 20 by the Department of Agriculture, and finely 

 illustrated with twenty-one plates. It is written by Dr J. C. Neal 

 -of Florida. 



The disease, according to Dr Neal, is exclusively restricted to 

 the southern part of the country, never having been observed 

 further from the limit of tide water than one hundred and fifty 

 miles, so that southern microscopists have this field for investi- 

 gation entirely to themselves. The affection manifests itself in 

 what is called the root-knot disease, and is characterized by the 

 presence of irregular enlargements on the rootlets and under- 

 ground stems, in each of these swellings an AnguUlula usually 

 being found as the cause. It had been recognized as a disastrous 

 •disease for many years, indeed, according to Dr Neal, since the 

 •earliest settlement of the South Atlantic and Gulf States by the 

 whites, but the true cause vv'as not suspected until Dr Neal sent 

 specimens to the Department of Agriculture, and was requested 

 to linvestigate the matter. This pamphlet is the result, and 

 while, owing to the difficulties of the subject and the 

 limited time at the author's disposal, the results are not so com- 

 plete as is desirable, still the comfort remains that there is much 

 for the amateur microscopists in the southern States to do. They 

 have the diseased plants at their doors. They need only to go 

 out and pull them up by the roots, and proceed to investigate 

 the cause which they will find snugly tucked away in the root- 

 knots. 



Many common wild plants are affected, but the depredations 

 •of the little worms seem to be chiefly confined to those that are 

 cultivated, of which Dr Neal gives a long list. The disease 



