226 Annval Report f nr 1907 of the Consulting Botanist. 
Two injuries to broad beans were investigated. The leaves 
in one case were covered with numerous small orange-coloured 
pustules, being the fruiting stage of Uromyces fabce Pers. No 
serious damage results from the attack of this fungus. The 
other case was an injury to the stems of beans from a field in 
Norfolk. The attack had begun in the x’oot and passed up 
into the stem, suggesting the disease of blackleg in the potato 
plant. The parts killed in both the root and stem were filled 
with a greyish slimy substance swarming with innumerable 
very minute rod-like bacteria. The bacterium was isolated 
and cultivated on sterilised carrot. It grew freely, forming 
gelatinous, dirty white colonies. From these the bacteria were 
transferred on a needle to young seedling beans. The bacteria 
began to multiply, and in four days the blackness of the 
rootlets and the stem as in the original specimens made its 
appearance. The examination of the blackened tissues showed 
that the injury was due to the same bacteria. A further 
experiment was made to test whether this bacterium of the 
bean was the same as that causing blackleg in potato. Bacteria 
from the beans were transferred to healthy potato tubers 
which were planted in the soil. The shoots that were 
developed were healthy, but after direct infection of the shoots 
the disease appeared and they were killed. These results 
may not be sufficient to determine the identity of the 
bacterium causing blackleg in potatoes and in beans, it never- 
theless establishes that the potato may be infected by the 
bacterium from the bean. It is therefore well that caution be 
exercised when an attack of blackleg appears in a crop of 
either beans or potatoes, neither plant should be the succeeding 
crop. 
Two diseases, hitherto unknown in England, affecting 
potatoes have been investigated. Some tubers had been stored in 
a somewhat moist place. In a short time there appeared patches 
of a dark moxild, composed of short olive green bristles. The 
tissues of the potatoes underneath these patches were brownish 
coloured. The fungus was found to be Stysanus Stemonitis 
Corda. This has been hitherto considered as growing only on 
dead ox’ganic matter, but the experiments recently conducted 
at the German Biological Station at Dahlem have proved that 
the fungus produces rot in potatoes, which spreads fi*om tuber 
to tuber when stored in pits. It is also reported from America 
that the brown disease in potato is caused by this fungus. The 
spores have readily germinated in the laboratory on healthy 
tubers which were soon covered with the dark mould. The 
accompanying illustration (Fig. 1) shows the fungus greatly 
magnified (a, b), and the spores still more magnified (C). Well- 
ventilated pits will greatly hinder the growth of this fungus. 
