14 TIMBER ROT CAUSED BY LENZITES SEPIARIA. 



These afford a very ready access to the interior tissues, since they often 

 extend to the heartwood, or even into it (PI. II, figs. 1 and 2; 

 and PL III, fig. 3). The season cracks are especially favorable for 

 the development of the fungus, as they dry out much more slowly 

 than do the outer layers of wood, and thus give the spores a chance to 

 germinate and to push the germ tube into the adjacent wood cells 

 before the air is too dry for further development. 



Lenzites sepiaria grows very rapidly under favorable conditions. 

 Observations on newly cut, green railroad ties have shown that 

 fully developed normal sporophores will form within five months' 

 time upon such timbere. Artificial inoculations made by the waiter 

 also resulted in the formation of sporophores witliin five months 

 (PL III, fig. 2). Tills remarkably short time for the development 

 of a serious wood-rotting fungus is of course possible only under the 

 most favorable conditions. 



THE FUNGUS. 

 ITS NAME. 



Lenzites sepiaria has been known in Europe for many years, being 

 easily traced back to 1786, and ^\ith less certainty to a considerably 

 earlier date. It has been placed in a number of different genera, 

 according to the ideas of the various authors who have written 

 about it. It was called Agaricus sepiarius by Yon Wulfen (1786), 

 w^ho first named it; Persoon (1800) called it Merulius sepiarius; 

 Fries (1815) changed it to Dacdalea sepiaria, hut later (1838) changed 

 it again to Lenzites saepiaria; Karsten (1876) at first used the name 

 Lenzites saepiaria, but later(1882) changed to Gloeopliyllum saepiarium, 

 and still later (1889) changed to Lenzitina saepiaria; Murrill (1904) 

 used the name Sesia Mrsuta, but later (1905, 1908) changed to 

 Gloeopliyllum Jiirsntuin. The matter has not been investigated 

 thoroughly enough for the writer to venture an opinion as to the 

 merits of the various names. He therefore uses the name Len- 

 zites sepiaria, which is used and accepted by most botanists. 



THE SPOROPHORES. 



The sporophores are rather small for a wood-rotting fungus. 

 They rarely j^i-oji^ct more than 2 inches from the substratum, 

 and are commonly long, narrow, shelf-like formations, extending 

 horizontally from the surface of the wood. They are frequently 

 compound or are clustered very closely together, and are especially 

 numerous on the ends of affected timbers (PL I, fig. 1). When they 

 are on the sides of the timber they are' almost certain to be situated 

 in season cracks (PL III, fig. 3). Sometimes, on a very badly 

 rotted log, many sporophores situated in a single season crack fuse 



214 



