738 Forestry Quarterly 



"Pineapple Fungus,"^ though this is the first botanical record of 

 its occurrence in those areas. The first record in America appears 

 to have been not earlier than 1886.^ There is some evidence that 

 the Indians knew it and made use of it medicinally. 



2. The active principle is a resinous substance, Agaricin; this, 

 with other resins, constitutes up to 70 per cent of the dry weight 

 of the fruiting body. 



3. The resins are secreted in the form of amorphous granules, 

 to some extent on the mycelium, but in much greater abundance 

 on the hyphae of the sporophore. 



4. Chlamydospores appear in cultures. They also occur on the 

 sporophore, but in both cases are different from those produced by 

 Polyporus sulphur eus. 



5. Quelet and certain other European systematists have as- 

 sirnied that Pontes officinalis is a variety of Polyporus sulphureus, 

 or specifically very close to it. They are very distinct species, 

 however, differing in many respects: (1) Size and branching of 

 hyphae; (2) Form, longevity and content of sporophore; (3) 

 Structure of sporophore; (4) Size of spores; (5) Distinct dif- 

 ferences in cultural characters. 



6. Fames officinalis is the cause of a red heart rot of conifers, 

 characterized by a removal of the cellulose, by a fracturing of the 

 wood into rectangular masses, and the formation of mycelial 

 sheets in the crevices. Histologically, the effects are similar to 

 those caused by Polyporus Schweinitzii. It occurs on living and 

 dead timber, and belongs to the group commonly regarded as 

 wound parasites. The losses occasioned by it in some areas are 

 extensive. It occurs throughout Ontario and Quebec on Pinus 

 strobus, and has been reported from Michigan on the same host. 



7. Fames officinalis is known to occur on the following hosts: 



Europe and Asia : 



Larix europaea, L. sihirica. 

 America : 



Abies concolor, A. magnifica, A. grandis. 



Larix occidentalis , L. laricina. 



Picea Engelmanni, P. sitchensis. 



1 Pineapple tree — ^An old English name, now obsolete, for a pine tree or a 

 coniferous tree; pineapple originally meant a pine cone. 



^Specimens in the Museum of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, were 

 collected by Dr. D. Lyall in British Columbia about 1860. 



