FINGER-AND-TOE, ANBURY, OR CLUB. 149 



notes of this forw that he considers "The enumerated experiments 

 seem to show tliat Finger-and-Toe is the midway from wildness to 

 cultivation ; and our observations upon the circumstances connected 

 with cultivated root crops, that the malformation in them, is the result 

 of degeneration from cultivation to wildness." — (J. B. B.) * 



Finger-and-Toe being a name applicable to any much divided root 

 growth, has unfortunately been applied to very different conditions ; 

 but, so far as I am aware, the other common names applied to the 

 swollen tumour-like masses of the fungoid disease known also as Club 

 and Anbury, have never been given to this state of " calling back " to 

 the original form of root above noticed. Its spindly, or Radish-shaped, 

 and regular and sound, though much divided development, is the very 

 opposite of that of the swollen masses which now cause so much loss 

 in the country, and I have only alluded to it because an occasional 

 enquiry shows that confusion sometimes still exists, solely in conse- 

 quence of one name having been applied to two or more distinct kinds 

 of attacks, of all of which we now are well acquainted with the 

 respective histories. 



FiNGER-AND-ToE, AnBURY, OK ClUB. 



The diseased swellings and malformations of roots which are known 

 in this country by the above names, and on the Continent as Hernia, 

 or rupture, and which especially affect the roots of Turnips and 

 Cabbage, are caused by infestation of a " Slime Fungus," scientifically 

 the Plasmodiophora brassiccB of Woronin. 



The accompanying Plates showing three characteristic forms of 

 this diseased growth are from photographs of specimens kindly sent 

 me at my request from Balderton Hall, Myddle, near Shrewsbury, by 

 Mr. G. G. Blantern, and to save any confusion as to the nature of the 

 attack, it has seemed best to give all three popular names on each 

 Plate, with the name commonly applied to the form figured placed 

 first. (See Frontispiece, and Plates to face pp. 143 and 149). 



Now that the information has been placed in our hands, of the pre- 

 cise nature of the infestation, with full details of its history, it is easy 

 for any qualified observer, with the help of a sufficiently powerful 

 microscope, to trace out all the minutiae of this " Slime Fungus" attack, 

 and its effects on the infested tissues for himself; but it was not until 

 the year 1876, when, after long research, the precise nature of the 

 attack was discovered by M. Woronin, a Eussian botanist, that its 

 true history was known. For many years I have myself been obliged, 

 in the course of my regular work, to study it practically, and to some 



* 'Finger-and-Toe in Boot Crops,' by James B. Buckman, F.G.S., F.L.S., Prof. 

 of Geology and Botany, Koyal Agricultural College, Cirencester, published in Journal 

 of Koyal Agricultural ISociety of England, vol. xv., 1st series. 



