842 Control of Plant Diseases in Germany, [fee., 



corded from other parts of Britain. Dr. MacDougall states 

 that he found it years ago in the tropical house at the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, and has since then frequently 

 observed it in the same place, a specimen, measuring 18J 

 inches when fully expanded, being found in the Tropical 

 Fernery in January of this year. MacDougall has also 

 recorded it from hot-houses in Midlothian, Cheshire, and 

 Northumberland. Theobald has recorded it from Blackheath 

 and Lee. 



The worm is grey or yellow-grey in colour, with dark 

 longitudinal stripes down the dorsal surface. On the under 

 surface is a groove into which many mucus-glands pour their 

 secretions, and by means of this sticky secretion Bipalium 

 is able to cling to the earthworms on which it preys. The 

 head end can be extended as a crescent-shaped plate. Lehnert 

 states that, having fastened itself to an earthworm, Bipalium 

 proceeds to extend its pharynx over the front part of the 

 earthworm, whose tissues are then sucked into the pharynx 

 of the Bipalium. In Britain this worm does not mature its 

 reproductive organs, and multiplication is by fission. 



The investigation of the diseases and insects which attack 

 plants forms an important part of the activities of many of the 

 Agricultural Experiment Stations and 

 Control of Plant Colleges in Germany, and in recent 

 Diseases in Germany. yea rs an effort has been made to cen- 

 tralise a portion of the work in the 

 Imperial Biological Institute for Agriculture and Forestry, 

 which is attached to the Ministry of the Interior. In 1903-4 

 also the Plant Diseases section of the German Agricultural 

 Society, which had been established in 1889, was abolished, 

 and its functions were transferred to the Institute. This sec- 

 tion had previously issued annual reports reporting on the 

 diseases and insect attacks which had been brought to its 

 notice, and as an example of the extent to which its work had 

 grown, it may be mentioned that the first report, issued in 

 1893, contained 106 notices of attack, while the number in the 

 twelfth report was 3,904, the information being supplied 

 voluntarily by some 41 local stations distributed throughout 

 Germany. It was recognised, however, that the information 



