Some recent Publications bearing on the 
question of the Sources of Nitrogen in 
Plants. 
BY 
H. MARSHALL WARD, M.A., F.L.S. ; 
Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge ; and Professor of Botany in the Forestry 
School, Royal Indian College, Cooper s Hill. 
I N the Berichte der deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft for 
1885 1 there appeared a paper by Professor Frank of 
Berlin, entitled ‘ Ueber die auf Wurzelsymbiose beruhende 
Erndhrung gewisser Baume durch unterirdische Pilze^ in 
which the author made known to science the results of some 
investigations of a kind sufficiently astonishing at the time, 
and which have been considered of late as possibly leading to 
yet more remarkable results when they are further examined. 
I propose to give a brief account of the published substance 
of this and certain other papers, with short critical notes of 
the views which the facts have suggested. 
In the above paper Frank states that researches were 
being made in order to obtain information as to the culture 
of Truffles, which have long been known to affect the neigh- 
bourhood of living beeches, hornbeams, and oaks. Having 
regard to the observation 2 that the Truffle-like fungus Ela - 
phomyces has its mycelium affixed to the roots of living 
pines, like a parasite, the question arose whether the true 
Truffles may not also be parasitic on roots ? 
1 pp. 128-144, PI. X. 
2 Reess, ‘ Sitzungsber. d. physik-med. Soc. zu Erlangen, 10 May, 1880.’ 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. I, Nos. Ill and IV, February 1888.] 
