LEGUMINOUS CROPS. 



IB 



ttat these swellings were the storehouses for nitrogenous 

 compounds — these compounds being subsequently used up 

 in the ripening of the seed. But it has been shown by 

 subsequent research that Tschirch's idea is erroneous, and 

 that these root-nodules are pathological or disease struc- 

 tures, caused by a microscopic fungus whose spores are, at 

 times, found in cultivated soils. 



During the seasons of 1886 and 1887, field and garden 

 beans were attacked, more or less, by a fungus which 



Fig. 3. — Boots of Broad Beahs, 



(Ficia /afea) infested with a fungus causing nodular out-growths. 



caused nodular out-growths upon the roots, and thereby 

 caused great injury to the crop (Fig. 3). 



In the neighbourhood of Etton, near Peterborough, the 

 crops of winter beans were, during 1887, a complete 

 failure. Mr. G. W. Edgson (a well-known farmer) of 

 Etton sent the author a number of these bean plants for 

 inspection. They were about seven inches long. Mr. 

 Edgson wrote as follows : " The roots of the winter beans, 

 you will find, are covered with small boils, which appear 

 to be living upon the plant, and have kept the bean 

 plants in the stage you now see them. For the last few 



