

112 



MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



says " It perforates a hole the size of a half inch auger, or 

 large enough to admit the little finger. * * * This hole 

 running inward to the heart of the tree, and admitting the 

 water thereto from every shower that passes, causes a decay 

 in the wood to commence and the tree never regains its 

 previous soundness." The moth seems to lay her eggs on 

 either healthy or injured trees with no decided preference 

 for either one. The burrows found with the fungus urrow- 

 iug in them were partly in apparently perfectly sound trees 

 and partly in trees having some injury partially healed 

 over. 



The spores of the fungus were evidently blown into the 

 entrances of the burrows and the fungus then started to 

 grow and followed the burrow until the heart of the tree 

 was reached. The heart wood itself becomes affected and 

 the rot extends throughout the w r ood of the tree trunk until 



the top is broken over by the wind or the weight of the 

 tree. 



As stated above the disease has been found occurring 

 locally in Missouri and northern Arkansas in trees of 

 Quercus marilandica and Q. velutina. In the places where 

 found, the timber had formerly been cut off and a new 

 growth of mixed oaks had taken the place of the cut for- 

 est. This new growth was very thick and reached the 

 height of about twenty-five feet, and six inches in diameter. 

 The sporophores appeared within about six or seven feet 

 of the ground below the lower branches of the trees. In 

 the localities where the disease was found nearly all of the 

 trees of the two species mentioned above were affected, 

 while the trees of white oak which were scattered among 

 the others were never seen to have the fungus upon them. 

 This is just what one would naturally expect under the 

 circumstances, as the insect seems to have a preference for 

 the two affected species and not to attack the white oak at 

 all. 



The rot extends up and down in the heart wood until 



i 



