1906] SMITH—A BACTERIAL DISEASE OF OLEANDER 307 
lized by flaming. When this was done, the small colonies could be 
seen in the tissue as dark clear places; these were touched with a 
sterile platinum needle, and a tube of ordinary meat bouillon was 
inoculated. Several such tubes were inoculated from the knots, and 
in about two or three days there was abundant growth. From these 
tubes dilution cultures were made on agar in Petri dishes. Other 
dilution cultures in Petri dishes were then made from ten of the 
bouillon tubes, and the uniformity with which one form of colony 
appeared in the Petri plates seemed to indicate quite conclusively that 
this was the organism causing the disease. Transfers were then 
made from these colonies to agar tubes and thence to various culture 
media, 
CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS.—The organism was grown on the 
ordinary culture titrated to +1.5 to phenolphthalin and grown at 
room temperature, 
Mor phology—The organism is a motile rod with rounded ends, 
1.5-2.5X0.5-0.6m. It is usually solitary, but may occur in pairs. 
Organism direct from the plant as well as from the pure culture 
shows motility. The size as above given was from a preparation 
made directly from the tissue. 
A gar slant—On agar growth appeared in about twenty-four hours, 
aS a very thin, grayish-white surface growth. This spread quite 
rapidly over the surface, especially near the lower portion of the tube. 
Sometimes small roundish colonies appeared at the side of the growth 
along the stroke. In cultures a week old the growth is white by 
transmitted and reflected light. The growth is very thin and scarcely 
ages at first. The condensation water becomes clouded and 
ite 
Agar plate colonies,—On agar plates the colonies become visible 
- after three days. The deeper ones are small, globose, or biconvex 
with sharp entire margins, The surface colonies are larger and more 
Spreading, circular in outline, whitish in color, and somewhat more 
dense in center than at margin. The deeper ones often have a straw 
or cedar color as observed by Savastano. The surface colonies 
measure 2-4™™ jn diameter when four days old. They are more 
vigorous than colonies in gelatin of the same age. 
Glycerin agar.—Growth much the same as in agar, except more 
