XVIII. On the tubercular swellings on the roots of vicia faba

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Abstract
It has long been known that the roots of the Leguminosæ are commonly provided with peculiar tubercle-like swellings of various sizes, from that of a mustard-seed to that of a hazel-nut, and attention has been repeatedly directed to them of late years. They were observed by Malpighi, who seems to have looked on them as of the nature of Galls, and Treviranus regarded them as undeveloped buds, while A. P. DeCandolle considered them as diseased structures. Since that time very various ideas have been published with respect to them, and as to their origin and relation to the roots which bear them. One of the most curious facts about them is that, although it is very difficult to find a specimen of our ordinary Leguminosæ (Clover, Lucerne, Beans, Peas, Vetches, &c.) the roots of which are free from the swellings, no one has succeeded in showing that they do any injury to the plant: this has been repeatedly employed as an argument against their being due to the influence of any parasite. The contrary opinion has gradually gained ground, however, and I am now in a position to prove conclusively that it is the correct one. The first close investigation of these root-tubercles (as they may be shortly termed) is due to Woronin, who, in 1866, examined in detail the structure and contents of the similar swellings which are to be found on nearly every Alder, as well as those on the roots of the Lupin. In the cells of the Alder tubercles Woronin found a curious little Fungus, which was referred to the genus Schinzia , founded by Naegeli on a form which he himself discovered in the roots of Iris in 1842. In the cells of the tubercles of the Lupin, Woronin found multitudes of minute corpuscles, which he took to be Bacteria, or Vibrios, or organisms of that kind.

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