60 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
The work of investigation has been undertaken primarily 
on account of the value of the knowledge which might 
accrue through the study of the chromogenic fungi or 
bacteria which are concerned in the color reactions which 
take place in stained lumber; yet, on the other hand, the 
economic value of the work has not been lost sight of, 
owing to the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars to 
the lumber industry each year due to the lowering of the 
grade of lumber in piles through the rapid action of many 
tiny wood staining fungi. 
In the study of the fungus flora of the lumber pile a 
large number of forms have been observed not all of which 
discolor the substratum upon which they grow. Attention 
has been given not only to those which penetrate wood 
deeply and stain it, but also to those which discolor it only 
superficially. 
In the isolation and culture of the fungi herein de- 
scribed, recourse was had to the most careful bacterio- 
logical methods, such as are described by Dr. Erwin F. 
Smith * in his excellent monograph on ‘ Bacteria in rela- 
tion to plant diseases.’’ In a number of instances new 
conidial stages of fungi have been discovered, and in every 
instance the relation of the new form to the older known 
forms has been repeatedly established by starting with the 
newly discovered stage and following the fungus through 
all its known stages and back again to the beginning. The 
saprophytic nature of the forms studied made it possible to 
start with single colonies on a poured plate of agar medium 
and make transfer cultures to test tubes of sterile wood or 
other media. Each fungus was grown upon a number of 
kinds of wood, as well as upon potato, rice, bean, sweet, 
potato, and other similar media in tubes, in addition to 
cultures upon agar media made from wood and other veg- 
etable decoctions. 
In order to better establish varietal and specific charac- 
* Smith, E. F. Bacteria in relation to plant diseases. 1. (1905). 
