STUDIES OF SOME SHADE TREE AND TIMBER 



DESTROYING FUNGI.* 



BY GEO. F. ATKINSON. 



A great deal of attention has been given in the past to the study 

 of injuries to trees caused by the microscopic fungi, but compara- 

 tively little study has been made of the relation of the larger fungi 

 to the destruction of trees and timber. Tlie most notable work 

 which has been accomplished in this direction is that of Robert 

 Hartig of Miinchen, Germany, whose contributions have appeared 

 in the publications of the " Forstlische Yersuchsanstalt," in his book 

 on the Diseases of Trees, and in other places. During the past two 

 years there have appeared several excellent bulletins from the Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden and from the U. S. Dept. of Agr., giving in 

 detail the results of some work by H. von Schrenk, of Washington 

 University, St. Louis. 



About five years ago the writer began studying the injuries which 

 some of the higher fungi produce upon shade trees and timber ti-ees. 

 Yery little of this work has as yet been published. Use has been 

 made, however, of some of the studies and photographs accumulated 

 in the progress of the work, in the author's " Mushrooms y Edible^ 

 Poisonous, Etc.'''' (1900), and in other places ; while a short article 

 was published on " Some Wood Destroying Fungi," as special report 

 No. 9 in the Geological Survey of Louisiana, Feb., 1900. It has 

 been my plan, as far as possible, to select one or more individual 

 cases and then endeavor to trace the history of the relation of the 

 fungus and its host. This would include a study of the present con- 

 ditions, and an effort to determine, by examination, the time in the 



* The principal facts in this paper were presented before the Mass. Hort. Soc, 

 Boston, Mar. 1901. 



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