1896.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 9 



hairs. These facts, with other phenomena apparently of a 

 similar nature which occur in the leguminosre, etc., have 

 Jed Frank * to surmise that these fungi play an important 

 role in the assimilation of food material from the soil. As 

 no investigations have been made to our knowledge on the 

 occurrence of fungi on the roots of our native species of 

 plants, Professor Smith and myself have devoted consider- 

 able attention during the past summer to work in this 

 direction, for the purpose of determining, first, the prev- 

 alence of fungi on roots of our native plants ; second, 

 their nature and distribution; third, their relation to th^e 

 absence of root hairs. Already a large number of plants 

 have been examined, and it is proposed to carry on the inves- 

 tigations during the coming summer, with these additional 

 points in view, — fourth, to prove by means of cultures 

 whether the fungi are really # essential to the plant in the 

 assimilation of food from the soil ; fifth, if proved, to throw 

 some light, if possible, upon the process of assimilation ; 

 sixth, to ascertain whether these fungi are in any way — as 

 Kerner maintains they are — accountable for the difficulty 

 of transplanting certain plants. 



Damping Fungi and their Relations to Temperature and 



Moisture. 



Experiments are being made to ascertain the exact relations 

 of the development of the damping fungi to temperature 

 and moisture conditions. A large number of plants subject 

 to damping off are being experimented with in a portion of 

 the greenhouse provided with self- registering instruments. 

 In connection with this line of work, experiments are being 

 made to find out at what temperature the spores of injurious 

 fungi common to the greenhouse commence to germinate. 

 These experiments arc undertaken for the purpose of learn- 

 ing to what extent certain diseases can be controlled by 

 temperature and moisture conditions. 



* Lehrbuch der Botanik, page 295. 



