October 11, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



487 



a new work is unnecessary unless the author 

 has new material to present or can place be- 

 fore the reader the old facts in a novel and 

 interesting form. Judged on these lines, this 

 book of Mr. Serviss is wholly unnecessary: it 

 presents old material in a stereotyped, unin- 

 teresting and unattractive form. The expla- 

 nations of many of the motions of the solar 

 system are obscure, and fail to give the 

 reader an adequate understanding of the 

 underlying principles involved. 



The book contains many illustrations, but 

 the pictures in most cases bear no relation to 

 the accompanying text. Photographs of the 

 surface of the moon are scattered through the 

 chapter devoted to definitions and explana- 

 tions of such astronomical terms as horizon, 

 zenith, altitude and azimuth; while amid the 

 pages devoted to a description of the moon ap- 

 pear photographs of various nebulse. 



Charles Lane Poor 



A Beginner's Star-hoolc. By Kelvin Mc- 



Kjready. G. p. Putnam's Sons. 1912. 



Illustrated. Pp. vii -f 148. 



This little book is a beautifully printed and 

 illustrated guide to the stars and star groups. 

 The star charts and key maps, intended as 

 guides for the amateur observer, are arranged 

 on a somewhat novel plan. For each season 

 of the year two charts are printed, one show- 

 ing the sky as the observer faces the south, 

 the other the sky as the observer faces the 

 north. This undoubtedly facilitates the find- 

 ing of those stars situated either directly north 

 or south and not too high above the horizon. 

 But the charts are rather confusing when the 

 star one seeks to locate is nearly overhead, or 

 far to the east or west. 



The illustrations, showing the principal 

 nebulse and star groups of the heavens, are 

 from photographs taken at the Yerkes Ob- 

 servatory, and are wonderful reproductions 

 and triumphs of the printer's art. As a 

 whole, the book is admirably adapted for its 

 purpose, and should interest many in the 

 study of the heavens. 



Charles Lane Poor 



SPECIAL ABTICLES 

 ueophlyctis alfalf.e, a fungus disease of 



alfalfa occurring in OREGON 



Early in the year 1910 the writer noted the 

 occurrence of a crown gall disease of aKalfa 

 ia the Rogue River Valley near Medford, Ore- 

 gon, but, on account of other pressing work, • 

 the character of the disease was not investi- 

 gated until later. However, during 1911, 

 owing to the fact that the disease began to 

 show rather seriously in many of the large 

 alfalfa fields, an investigation was begun and 

 considerable field and laboratory work was 

 done. An examination of a large number of 

 fields with plants from two to seven years of 

 age showed large areas where the plants had 

 died, or where the growth had become very 

 weak. On examining the plants within these 

 areas, it was found that the crown and part 

 of the stems just above the crowns were 

 badly infected with numerous galls, varying 

 from an eighth of an inch or less to some- 

 times four inches in diameter. These galls 

 are much warted externally, and more often 

 a large-appearing gall is made up of a num- 

 ber of smaller galls which have become united. 

 Very rarely were there any galls found on the 

 root system, and none at more than six inches 

 below the surface of the ground as the plants 

 stood in the field. The disease seems to affect 

 the shoots or stems as well as the crowns and 

 roots, and many specimens were found where 

 the galls covered the stems fully five or six 

 inches above the crowns. In the field, diseased 

 plants usually show a very roughened crown 

 from which only weak, chlorotic stems arise, 

 the leaflets also being very small and lacking 

 the normal green color. In the few references 

 which the writer has had the opportunity to 

 see, and which are cited below, it has been 

 stated that the fungus was observed to be most 

 destructive to plants on damp ground. My 

 investigations have shovpn that this is not 

 true. It has been found that even ia the best 

 drained sandy loam and gravel soils of this 

 district (Rogue River Valley) the disease is 

 quite as serious as in the heavy, poorly 

 drained, "sticky" soils. It has been deter- 



