86 
COEN. 
the head-quarters of the Eel worms. I found wormlets also outside the 
bulb, amongst the sheathing-leaves, and likewise in the contorted 
stunted shoots. Eggs were not always present, but sometimes they 
were plainly distinguishable. (For shape see figure, p. 48.) 
In the case of the very young Oats sent in November, I found 
Eelworms of various sizes present, but only a few that were apparently 
fully grown, and the “ Tulip-root” growth was not then developed. 
The Eelworms which cause this attack are excessively small, white, 
transparent, thread-like worms, so minute as to be invisible to the 
naked eye, and hatch from eggs. They belong to the family of 
Anyuillulida, but at present we are not even sure which genus they 
belong to, nor (it seems to me) whether there may not he several 
kinds present. 
The appearance of the diseased plants corresponds with that caused 
in Germany by the Tylenchus dipsaci, Kuhn. This species is very 
nearly allied to the kind which causes the purple galls in wheat known 
as “Ear-cockles,” figured at p. 48. Several kinds of Eelworms are 
known to be found at the roots of Oats, and the figures of some of 
these given below may assist those who have a powerful microscope 
in making out what genus at least this pest belongs to. 
ANGUILLUIilDiE. 
1, Tylenchus ohtusus ; 2, AphelericJms avence; 3, Plectus gramdosus, of Bastian 
(all enormously magnified).* 
It will be observed that the-figures only give a portion of the head 
and the tail-ends ; if the whole was present the wormlet would have 
* The three species of Eelworms represented above are copied from the figures 
by Dr. H. Charlton Bastian, F.E.S., &c., given in Plate X. of his “ Monograph on 
the Anguilhdida," published in vol. xxv. of the ‘ Transactions of the Linnean 
Society.’ 
