FOMES ^PPLANATJJS (PERS.) WALLR. IN SOUTH AFRICA. 49I 



are not the deep yellow of the tropical plant." The ahove is 

 the only specimen with yellow pore mouths that has come to 

 my notice, and was collected in the Knysna forests by Mr. P. J. 

 Pienaar, on Podocarpits TliitiibcrgU. a host on which the ty])ical 

 Fames applaiiatiis also occurs. 



Suggestions for Control. 



Methods of control should follow preventative lines. The 

 practice of leaving in forests fallen trees and stumps infected 

 with this fungus, and on which the fruiting lx)dies of the fungus 

 frequently develop in great abundance, is not only opposed to 

 proper forest hygiene, but it is a sure means of propagating the 

 fungus, and enabling it to maintain itself in the forests. This 

 practice, therefore, continually exposes the trees to infection 

 when a favourable opportunity offers itself. 



Dead stumps and trees killed by the fungus should be 

 destroyed by lire, and all sporophores collected and similarly 

 destroyed. Depending somewhat on how infection has taken 

 place, it will be possible in certain instances to preserve the tree 

 by cutting out the developing sporophore and diseased wood 

 and painting the wound thus formed with tar. This method 

 would be found useful, especially where it is desired to i)reserve 

 attacked ornamental or shade trees, but in a large forest it is 

 hardly practicable, and here all attention should be directed to 

 prevent infection taking place. This can only be accom- 

 plished by the destruction of the s|x)rophores of the fungus, 

 and since the fungus fruits very readily on the dead remains of 

 the tree it has killed, all inifected material should be destroyed 

 as well, and attention given to proper forest sanitation. 



Summary. 



The paper treats of fouies appkuiatiis, a fungus very com- 

 mon in South Africa, and particularly deserving of attention 

 as it is the main cause of the death and blowing over of large 

 numbers of Olea laiirifoUa (black ironwotid) trees in the 

 Eastern Cape Conservancy. The fungus further occurs on a 

 large number of other hosts, and the list will probably later 

 become considerably enlarged. 



On black ironwcnixl the fungus is regarded by the author 

 as a facultative parasite, which gains entrance through wounds 

 at about .soil level, and from here grows into the healthy wood 

 and starts its work of destruction. The ifungus continues to 

 form sporophores after it has killed its host, and this is a i)oint 

 to be remembered in methods olf control. 



The action of the fungus on the wood is described a> one 

 of delignification followed by digestion, and agrees with the 

 obser\ations of Heald, as also with the elifect of the fungus 

 Polypunts liicidns Leys,* on willow, as pointed out bv the pre- 

 sent writer. A description of the fungus is given, and attention 



* " Note on Polyponis lucidus Leys., and its Effect on tbe Wood of 

 the Willow," Rept. S.A. Assoc, for Adv. of Science (19x6), Maritzhurg. 

 506. 



