30 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
crystals were found whose identity has not yet been deter- 
mined, as the amount found was too small to admit of 
analysis. This substance had the following properties: 
very light, like fine cotton wool, or cocoon silk, apparently 
very pure; volatilizes at once on platinum (heated) with- 
out burning; insoluble in water, soluble in hot alcohol, 
from which it crystallizes in shapes looking like sea moss; 
very soluble in petroleum ether, and extremely so in chlo- 
roform; residue colloid, resinous; melting point 174° C., 
pretty sharp without decomposition; chloroform solution 
does not absorb bromine; sublimes very readily, forming 
beautiful hairlike crystals. 
A number of trees were found in which the holes, instead 
of being filled as stated above, were nearly empty. They had 
a shining white lining ( Pl. 4, fig. 3) from which isolated 
white fibers projected into the cavity. The white fibers were 
found to be pure cellulose. 
When the brown contents are brushed out of the holes a 
perfectly even and smooth surface is left on all sides, indi- 
cating a very sharp dividing line between the decayed ele- 
ments and those apparently sound. A board from which 
the powder has been taken looks as if a number of grooves 
had been cut with a gouge chisel (Pl. 6). 
In a tree the peckiness starts in the upper part, i. e., the 
majority of the trees are perfectly sound at the base, and 
very much diseased in the upper portion of the trunk and 
the larger branches. The decay may extend but a few 
inches up and down, or for several feet, or through the 
entire length of the tree. The youngest branches in which 
any peckiness was found were 60 years old. Radially it 
may appear over the entire cross-section or on but one side. 
It is by no means the rule that the innermost rings 
are the first ones to decay (Pl. 1) as might be supposed 
from analogy with other timber diseases. A large tree at 
Arbor, Mo., approximately 300 years old, was pecky to 
within 25 ft. of the base, another to within 35 ft. The 
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