1902.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 461 



two fungous diseases of the "white cedae. 



by john w. harshberger, ph.d. 



Prefatory Kemarks. 



The white cedar is a stately tree seveuty to eighty feet iu height, 

 and one to four feet in diameter. It lives in the cold sphagnum 

 swamps of the Atlantic and Gulf coast plains, where frequently 

 the bases of the tree are flooded w-ith water. In Kew Jersey, and 

 in the North generally, it forms an almost pure growth. It is 

 associated in the South with the bald cypress, Taxodiwn. Ex- 

 tending from southern Maine along the coast to northern Florida 

 and then westward to the Pearl river in INIississippi, it never is 

 met with far inland, being confined almost entirely to the coastal 

 plains. 



The tree is not subject to any very serious disease. It is remark- 

 ably exempt from both insect and fungal enemies, and conse- 

 quently it should be looked upon as a promising tree for future 

 systematic forestry in the eastern United States. It gives value to 

 lands that without it would be useless, Sydow^ gives nineteen 

 species of fungi living on Cupressus thyoides. To this number one 

 additional fungus should be added, viz., Gymnosporang'mm Ellmi 

 Berk. Of these, ten species are found growing on the leaves, 

 causing no material injury to them, as the fungi are usually found 

 on dead leaves. Five fungi are confined to the branches, one is 

 found on the trunk, two grow on the bark, two are found on the 

 wood and one fungus, Gymnosporangium biseptatum, occurs on 

 both leaves and branches. The majority of these fungi are sapro- 

 phytes living on the dead parts of the white cedar. Only two 

 fungi may be called disease-producing, viz., Gymnosporangium 

 biseptatum ^XWii and Gymnosporangium Ellisii (Berk.) Fallow. 



The latter species, Gymnosporangium Ellisii, was first described by 



1 Stdow, Index Universalis et Loctipletissiimis Nominum Plantarum 

 Hospitium Specierumque Omnium Fungorum, 1898, p. 375. 



