1913] CURRENT LITERATURE 255 
nating in the peculiar vesicles described by BRuNcHOoRST. Like BRUNCHORST, 
he regards these vesicles as sporangia and describes the fragmentation of their 
contents into angular “‘spores.” In the filaments themselves, which finally 
break up into segments, he finds deeply staining bodies described by SHrBATA, 
and which resemble the spores of bacteria. These are regarded as endospores, 
although in his subsequent cultural work he appears to have made no attempt 
to settle the question of the sporelike nature either of these bodies or of the 
fragments of the vesicles, by showing that they are capable of germination. 
In view of Surpata’s observation that these bodies as well as the filaments are 
completely absorbed by the host, it seems that an experimental attempt to 
determine their true nature would have been worth while, especially since the 
author seems to have found no difficulty in growing his organisms. The 
similar to those observed in the host cells. The indecisive results of the 
infection experiments, however, leave some doubt as to whether his cultures 
contained the causal organisms of the root-galls. From the resemblance of the 
root-gall fungus of Alnus and Myrica to the animal parasite Actinomyces, 
PEKLO, following a suggestion made by Surpata in regard to the fungus of 
Myrica, transfers these organisms to the genus Actinomyces, and rebrands the 
as hese All these organisms he believes are highly organized 
bact 
hae studying the root nodules of Myrica Gale finds that the bulk 
of the cortical tissue back of the meristem of :the growing apex of the young 
nodules is infected with bacteria. These are massed together in “infection 
threads” extending from cell to cell. The bacteria were obtained in pure 
cultures where they showed the characteristics of Pseudomonas radicicola. 
Cultures grown for seven days at 25° C. showed a fixation of 2.05 mg. nitrogen 
Per toocc. It was found that Myrica plants growing in sterilized soil deficient 
in nitrogen did not flourish unless they possessed root nodules. When plants 
free from root nodules and growing poorly were watered with a culture of the 
bacteria, nodules developed and the plants began to thrive. Fungus filaments 
are found in bn older parts of the galls, soapetines close to the bacteria-infected 
cells, but alt not hizal nature of these filaments 
which are the ompanians deccrihed by previous investigators, he believes that 
they ig nothing to do with the origin of the nodules or with nitrogen fixation. 
ss. SPRATT? confirms former observations of BotromLy, according to 
which ee root-gall organisms of A/nus and Elaeagnus is a bacterium identical 
with Pseudomonas radicicola. The organism occupies the young cortical tissues 
ee 
* Borromiy, W. B., The root nodules of Myrica Gale. Ann. Botany 26: 111-117. 
“IQI2. 
* Spratt, Ere: Rose, The morphology of the root tubercles of Alnus and 
Gensak aud the polymorphism of the organism causing their formation. Ann. 
Botany 26: 119-128. 1912. 
