Periodical IJterature. 533 



Neil E. Stevens of the Kansas Experiment 



Catalpa Station presents the results of an investi- 



Rot. gation of the diseases of Hardy Catalpa in 



Kansas plantations. It was claimed in 

 Bulletin 37 of the Bureau of Forestry that no fungus was known 

 to grow on dead catalpa timber. This statement is shown to be 

 erroneous. Although, in many instances, the fungi do not pro- 

 duce fruiting-bodies, still enough of these organs have been found 

 to prove that Polystictus versicolor, Schizophyllum covtmune, 

 Poly poms adustits and Stereiim albobadium attack the wood in 

 varying degree. The former is known as a wound-parasite of 

 catalpa and often develops after the timber is cut, the greater part 

 of the decay being probably due to this species. It fruits on 

 heartwood as well as sap, while all the other fungi mentioned are 

 confined to the sapwood. To show the relative activity of the two 

 more common species, the author made test tube inoculations on 

 blocks' of Liriodendron tulipifcra. In six months P. versicolor 

 occasioned a loss of 59% of the original weight of the wood, as 

 against 2)7% ^o^ Schizopyllwn commune. 



Wood Rots of the Hardy Catalpa. Phytopathology. July, 1912. Pp. 

 1 14- 1 19, pi. 10. 



Much has been written regarding this in- 



Oak teresting forest disease but the literature 



Mildew. largely consists of speculations concerning 



the origin and systematic position of the 

 fungus. Neger, however, demonstrates by field and laboratory 

 experiments the form in which the mildew survives the winter, 

 and makes recommendations for combating the disease in nur- 

 series. 



The perithecial form being extremely rare, it is of no practical 

 significance in the life cycle. Experiments with conidia (sum- 

 mer sports) show that they rapidly lose vitality and undoubtedly 

 do not live over winter ; while investigation of the peculiar knotty 

 swellings found on the mycelium, first observed by Ferrari, who 

 termed them "gemmae", and later explained by Foex as the stalks 

 of broken conidiophores, also do not germinate, and their sig- 

 nificance as resting spores is untenable. The mycelium in the 

 buds, however, persists through the winter and readily infests the 

 young shoots which develop from them in the spring. 



