As™ptember,Pi9iT'}   Myricacece  of  Eastern  United  States.  395 
fera  and  M.  Caroliniensis.  Their  diameter  varies  from  3  to  4  mm. 
The  apex  of  each  mature  fruit  is"  pitted.  Two  hundred  fruits  which 
the  writer  gathered  at  Palermo,  New  Jersey,  November  7,  1914, 
weighed  6.7  Gms.  The  fruits  of^one  season  past  and  several  of  the 
previous  season  adhere  to  the  persistent  catkin  axes. 
Myrica  Gale,  Linne,  is  distributed  through  northern  regions,  from 
Labrador  and  Newfoundland  as  far  south  as  Warren  County,  New 
Jersey;  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  in  eastern  mountain 
regions  to  Virginia.    Its  leaves  are  strictly  deciduous. 
Myrica  inodora,  Bartram,  from  the  statement  of  authors,  is  ever- 
green. In  height  and  aspect  it  somewhat  resembles  M.  cerifera, 
Comptonia  asplenifolia,  Aiton,  is  distributed  from  Nova  Scotia  to 
Saskatchewan,  and  southward  to  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee.  Its 
leaves  are  strictly  deciduous. 
Seedlings  are  for  the  first  time  described  and  figured  from  the 
cotyledonary  stage  onward  for  M.  cerifera,  M.  Caroliniensis,  and  M. 
Macfarlanei.  Their  comparative  morphology  has  been  traced.  The 
author  shows  that  from  the  seedling  primary  root  of  five  to  six 
months'  growth,  and  from  thence  onward,  characteristic  root  tubercles 
are  formed  on  M.  cerifera,  M.  Caroliniensis,  M.  Macfarlanei,  and 
Comptonia  asplenifolia,  The  organism  is  found  in  all  these  to  be  an 
Actinomyces  (which  was  isolated  according  to  Koch's  postulates  in 
pure  culture,  first  described  by  the  writer  and  named  by  him  Actino- 
myces Myricarum)  that  abundantly  fills  infested  cells  in  the  cortex 
of  the  tubercles,  which  owe  their  origin  as  arrested  and  modified 
roots  to  its  irritant  and  invading  action.  As  a  result  of  cultures  made 
from  tubercles,  the  author  concludes  that  good  cultures  of  the 
organism  can  be  secured  in  the  depth  of  nutrient  agar.1 
Since  Actinomyces  is  frequently  a  virulent  pathogenic  organism  in 
cattle  and  other  domestic  animals  up  to  man,  because  the  swellings  it 
produces  on  plants  are  analogous  to  those  on  animals,  since  the  forms 
of  the  organism  as  shown  by  Jordan  in  the  infested  lesions  of  animals 
are  similar  to  those  which  the  writer  has  described  in  the  lesions  of 
Myrica;  and  since  the  cultural  characteristics  of  the  organism  isolated 
from  the  lesions  of  animals  by  Wright,  Wolff,  and  Israel  are  in  many 
respects  similar  to  those  isolated  from  the  Myricas  and  described  by 
the  writer,  he  would  regard  the  organism  as  a  parasite  and  suggest 
1  The  writer  has  recently  been  successful  in  growing  Actinomyces' 
Myricarum  on  coagulated  horse  serum  in  sealed  tubes  kept  at  a  temperature 
of  37-5°  C. 
