289 
Mr. Barber, the -Government Botanist, Madras, states that 
Cassia mimosoides may possess nitrogenous nodules and eel-worm 
galls. This I have been able to confirm in plants at the Hakgala 
Garden. The best naked eye character to depend upon in judging 
between the two classes is the relative freedom of the swolen part; 
nitrogenous nodules are attached very feebly to one side of the 
small root or rootlets, and a slight pull will detach them with ease; 
whereas those produced by nematodes are more in the nature of 
swellings in the actual root or rootlet, and though they often occur 
on one side only, they are more frequently extended through a great- 
r er part of the circumference and cannot be detached separately from 
the root. In the young stages it is by no means easy to distinguish 
one class from another by the naked eye, a case in point being the 
eel-worm galls reported by Mr. Barber on the Cinchona in' Ma- 
dras. In cases of doubt a transverse section of the swollen material 
seen under the microscope or with a good lens will settle the mat- 
ter very speedily; in sections of true nitrogenous nodules every 
component cell is considerably swolen and the majority are packed 
with minute bacteria-like bodies, whereas in a nematode nodule 
the large cysts of the worm and frequently part of the body can 
be seen. 
The nematodes are much more generally distributed throughout 
the plant kingdom than nitrogenous nodules, as may be judged 
from their occurrence on beetroot, sugarcane, cucumber, wheat, 
onions, cinchona, papaw, lettuce and tomato. Mr. Green, the 
Government Entomologist, has also found them on the roots of the 
common balsam and species of Coleus and Heliotrope. I have 
examined tea planter’s nurseries and found that the leguminous 
species that the expe imental planter was growing for green dress- 
ings for his tea had their roots packed with eel-worm galls only. 
These were being zealously attended to in the belief "that they 
were nitrogenous nodules of exceptional size. 1 he fact that the 
presence of these eel-worm galls has been determined on roots of 
tea both in Ceylon and India is sufficient to make one examine, 
very carefully, the nature of the nodules which may occur on the 
leguminous plants used for nitrogen collecting. The following 
list includes the more common plants oa which' nematode nodules 
or galls have been found: — Ageratum conyzoides (‘'Goat weed” 
or Pumpulla), Impatiens Sultani (Chitta maddi), Triumfetta rhom- 
boidea (Epala), Cassia mimosoides (Binsiyambala), Mollugo penta- 
f ’ Impatiens kleinii, Impatiens balsamina, Sida' rhombi- 
tolia, lea, species of Coleus, Heliotrope, Cinchona, French bean 
I V ,aseojus v u[garis, Desmodium sp., Saccharum officinalis, Acacia 
ecurrens, Piper subpeltatum, and numerous garden cultivations 
such as those previously mentioned. 
The nitrogenous nodules may be divided into two classes, one 
comprising those which are approximately globular in form, 
-rj /////a i.idica and Phaseolus vulgans\ the other includes those 
that are flat and grooved and have the appearance of miniature 
nnger-like projections from a common centre, the latter being the 
