TULIP-ROOT. 
37 
to be represented (at its present magnified width) as from at least 
eight or nine inches to a foot long. In fig. 1 it will be observed there 
is a spear or sharp point, with a large base, a swelling about half-way 
down the gullet, and the tail is blunt without a sucker. Fig. 2 has a 
spear without a large base, and the swelling of the gullet is quite at 
the lowest end ; the end of the blunt tail has a very small sucker. In 
fig. 3 there is no obvious spear, the gullet is differently shaped, and 
there is a small sucker at the end of the pointed tail. These belong 
to three different genera or divisions as we may call them, and these 
and one other are alike in the power they possess of prolonged life, 
and recovery after being dried.* The common Eelworm of the wheat 
cockle-gall has been found to recover after being torpid for four or five 
years, and this capacity may have something to do with the appearance 
of patches of diseased growth in the Oat fields, where there has been 
no treatment to account for them in the preceding years (see map, 
page 42). 
The following notes are arranged as nearly as possible in order of 
date :— 
On July 6th Mr. Edm. Eiley, of Kipling Cote, Market Weighton, 
sent specimens of Oat-plants, with the following remarks:—“I have 
sent you a sample of diseased Oats. I have not had any on this farm 
before, but it was very common on some lands last year. This fine 
weather is improving crops much.” 
These young plants were about ten inches high, the lower part of 
some of the main shoots was swollen into a bulb-like form, and the 
others contorted into irregular knotted shapes round the base of the 
tulip-rooted stem. These were mostly white, irregularly thickened 
and folded to and fro, as shown in the figure, p. 34. On opening the 
diseased parts, and more especially the swollen bulbs, it was observable 
(with the help of a magnifying-glass) that the inside had a sort of 
crumbly appearance, as if sprinkled with damp powder, and, on 
scraping some of this off and examining it with an inch-focus object- 
glass, it proved to be full of Eelworms in perfect vigour, with large 
numbers of eggs amongst them of the shape figured at p. 48. These 
AngidlluUdce were long, narrow, transparent wormlets, moving about 
in the glycerine in great numbers. The diseased Oat-plants sent did 
not look as if they were likely to get over the attack. 
On July 16th Mr. Alex. Watson, of Dreghorn Mains, Colinton, 
near Edinburgh, forwarded specimens of Tulip-rooted Oats, with the 
mention that the disease was very prevalent in the county, and some 
remedy urgently desired; and on the 26th he communicated further 
as follows :— 
* For source of above information, with full details, see Monograph by Dr. 
Bastian, previously quoted. 
