44 



and very foggy days. The same sugar, melezitose, that was found in 

 IWi/por>/s schweinitzil was obtained from the liquid in quantity. The 

 fungus is attacked when barely mature l)y insects and small animals, 

 and within a month after the ripening of the spores there is little of it 

 left except the harder vipper surface of the shelves and the contracted 

 basal portion. This may account for the fact that the spores ripen 

 and are discharged so very rapidly. Cultures of spores made in 

 water, in sugar water, and on bread showed no signs of germination. 

 These experiments are to be repeated with better cultural facilities. 



The spores spread through the air and are carried to all parts of the 

 forest. Wherever any wound or broken branch offers suitable condi- 

 tions they germinate and induce the rot described. 



Polypmms, sulfureus was found only on trees growing along the coast 

 of Maine. They were all older trees of the White Spruce. Further 

 search will no doul)t show that it attacks the Red Spruce also, and 

 possibly the other conifers. Its large, conspicuous sporophores make 

 its recognition easy, and the fact that they are edible in their early 

 stages ought to lead to their collection and destruction. 



POL.YPORTJS SUBACIDUS Peck. 



Poria subacida Peck, Thirty-eighth Report N. Y. State Museum. 92. 



OCCURRENCE. 



There are a number of fungi which attack standing trees and destroy 

 their wood, of which it is not possible to tell, without continuous 

 observation and experimentation, to what extent they are responsible 

 for the death of trees, and whether they attack perfectly healthy trees. 

 Among these belongs the fungus which for the present will be con- 

 sidered as Poly2}(yrus subacidus Pk. It is one which is found on decay- 

 ing logs of coniferous as well as other woods, ^ forming its pores in late 

 summer and winter. It was found once on a living Hemlock^ twice 

 on living White Spruce, and once within the trunk of a living White 

 Pine. In many of the spruce forests hundreds of trees, particularly 

 the younger ones, were found dead or dying. Man}^ of these trees 

 were pulled up, and on their roots yellowish masses of mj^^elium 

 were occasionally found. In one locality some thirty of these young 

 trees, ranging from 2 to 10 inches (5 to 25 cm.) in diameter, had the 

 wood of the trunk decayed by some fungus. The wood appeared 3^el- 

 low, was very wet and spongy, and was easily pulled into shreds. No 

 fruiting organs could be found. Several of the trunks were taken and 

 sawed into pieces a foot (30 cm.) or more in length. These pieces were 

 buried to the depth of a foot (30 cm.) in a sphagnum bank and were 

 examined every week. Other trees were simply broken near the 



1 See Exsiccati, E. & E., N. A. Fungi. 



