Abstract
THIS treatise, the first of its kind on the bacterial diseases of plants, is written by a recognised authority, whose work epitomises a considerable part of the history of the subject from the time when Burrill discovered, in 1882, that the fire-blight of apple- and pear-trees is due to Bacillus amylovorus. Since that time the number of known bacterial diseases in plants has greatly increased, and such diseases have now been described and studied in a large number of orders of flowering plants, as well as in Cycads and Pinacese. The first part of this work deals with the general relations of the bacteria to the host plants, the second part with methods of culture and technique—a. field in which the author is a past master—while the main body of the work is devoted to a detailed study of fourteen selected diseases, including Bacterium campestre, the cause of black-rot in Crucifers;. Bacillus phyto-phthorus, which produces a black-rot in potatoes; B. amylavarus, and Bacterium tumefaciens, the cause of crawnrg-all in many plants. The last-named produces -tumours in the plant which -the author, in his pioneer studies of cross-inoculation, has not hesitated to compare with cancer. The work is admirably illustrated, and will be of great service to all who are interested in plant pathology.
An Introduction to Bacterial Diseases of Plants.
Erwin F.
Smith
By. Pp. xxx + 688. (Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Co., 1920.) 50s. net.
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G., R. An Introduction to Bacterial Diseases of Plants . Nature 107, 168 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107168b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107168b0
