940 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1096 



of drouth and moisture, and clianging chem- 

 ical and physical conditions. 



This amceba was recovered by "Wlierry 

 (1913) from the water-supply of the adjacent 

 city of Oakland, California, but it is pri- 

 marily, in our experience, a soil amisba, found 

 in undisturbed alluvial soil along Strawberry 

 Canon on our campus, in garden soils and ap- 

 pears to have its maximum abundance at a 

 depth of about four inches, though it was also 

 recovered on our campus from clay and rock 

 talus ill situ in the sides of the excavation for 

 the Sather Campanile to a depth of over 

 twenty feet. It has also been found in cul- 

 tures from various ranch soils from the cen- 

 tral valleys of California. 



It is not distinguishable by any morpholog- 

 ical characters from a species described by 

 Schardinger (1889) as Amceha Gruheri from 

 human feces in a case of dysentery at Vienna, 

 Austria. There is evidence that this author 

 used pure culture methods. It is possible, 

 however, that the cysts might have taken in 

 food or water and have passed intact through 

 the digestive tract and then have been recov- 

 ered from the feces in the culture, but con- 

 tamination from dust or water are equally 

 open as possibilities. All of these facts taken 

 together lead to the inference that this amejba, 

 Nwgleri gruberi (Schardinger), may have a 

 wide distribution in the soil and to be cosmo- 

 politan in its occurrence. If this proves to be 

 the case, or if other amoeba of the soil have 

 similar flagellated stages, it is obvious that 

 future investigations of the relative distribu- 

 tion of amoebas and flagellates in the soil 

 should be so conducted as to avoid the compli- 

 cations in interpretation and conclusions in- 

 volved in the Jekyll-and-Hyde life history of 

 this organism. 



Literature Cited 

 Cauda, A. and Sangiorgi, G. 



1914. Untersuehungen liber die Mikrofauna 

 der Boden aus Eeisgegenden. Centbl. 

 Bakt. 2 Abt., 42, 393-398, 6 figs, in text. 

 Kofoid, C. A. 



1904. The Plankton of the niliiois River. 

 Part I. Bull. ni. State Lab. Nat Hist., 

 6, 95-629, pis. 1-50, 2 figs, in text. 



1908. Idem. Part II. lUd., 8, 1-vii., 1-361, 

 5 pis. 

 Martin, C. H. 



1912. A Note on the Protozoa from Sick Soils, 

 with Some Account of the Life-Cycle of 

 a Flagellate Monad. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lon- 

 don, B. 85, 393-400, pis. 10. 



Schardinger, P. 



1899. Entwioklungkreis einer Amceha lohosa 



(Gymnamoeba) : Amoeba Gruberi. S. B. 



Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math-natwiss. CI., 



108, 713-734, pis. 1-2. 

 Sharp, R. G. 



1914. Diplodinium ecaudatum, with an Account 



of its Neuromotor Apparatus, Univ. of 



Calif. Publ. Zool., 13, 43-122, pis. 3-7, 



4 figs, in text. 

 Sherman, J. M. 



1914. The Number and Growth of Protozoa in 

 Soil. Centbl. Bakt. 2 Abt., 41, 625-630. 



Wherry, W. B. 



1913. Studies on the Biology of an Amoeba of 

 the Limax Group. Arch. Prot., 31, 77-93, 

 pis. 8-9, 8 figs, in text. 



Wilson, C. W. 



1915. On the Life-histoiy of a Soil AmcBba. 

 Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. (In press.) 



Charles A. Kofoid 

 Zoological Laboratoet, 

 University of California 



THE NATn'E habitat OP SPONGOSPORA 



subtereanea 



The discovery of Spongospora suhterranea, 

 the powdery scab organism, on recent impor- 

 tations of potatoes from Peru by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has furnished important 

 evidence bearing on the question of the origin 

 of this parasite. Spongospora is widely dis- 

 tributed in Europe and within the last three or 

 four years has established itseK in several 

 widely separated localities in the United 

 States and Canada, but the problem of its 

 origin has remained unsolved. 



Kunkel's^ recent work on Spongospora has 

 demonstrated that a very intimate relation 

 exists between the host cells and the parasite. 



1 Kuukel, L. O., "A Contribution to the Life 

 History of Spongospora suhterranea," Jour, of 

 Agr. Research, 4: 26.5-278, Pis. XXXIX.-XLIII., 

 1915. 



