52 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [july 



and in the fall of the year 19 14 material was received from 

 Dr. M. P. Henderson. Other material was secured from alfalfa 

 plants grown and infected in the greenhouse. 



Standard histological and cytological methods were employed 

 for the examination of the material; reference to these will be 

 made in connection with various phases of the observations. 



Observations 



In 1902 Magnus (21) described the galls as branching tuber- 

 culate structures on the larger secondary roots of Medicago sativa. 



j cross-sections of the galls, he found large brown 



examimn 



regions of irregular form, which proved to be cavities filled with 

 resting spores of the parasite. " Thick-walled strongly en- 

 cysted mycelium" was found in many of the cavities, but he did 

 not find that the resting spores were attached to the hyphae. The 



amount 



it 



was often entirely lacking. The hyph 



asm 



completely displaced by these " wandering hyphae." Magnus 

 thought that this mycelium might "awake to new life 77 after 

 the winter resting period. He described the resting spores as 

 spherical with one side flattened; he noted a colorless hyaline 

 cell attached to the flattened side by means of a hyaline process. 

 Many pores were found in the centers of the flattened walls of 

 the spores. No other stages in the life of the parasite were men- 



all 



So 



far as the writer has been able to learn, no subsequent work has 

 been published touching upon the life history of this organism, 

 which has been classified as Urophlyctis alfalfae (von Lagerheim) 

 Magnus. Figures of the galls have been published by various 



agree with Magnu 



ma 



servations were several years old. Numerous 



crown 



gall of alfalfa were found upon the plants (fig. 1). Free-hand 

 sections of such galls upon microscopic examination revealed 

 numerous brownish resting spores, like those fieured bv Magnus, 





