186 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN INSTITUTE  [VOL. XII 
DISTRIBUTION AND Hosts. 
Records from the time of Dioscorides and Pliny onward show that 
in the old world Fomes officinalis is known to occur on the larch only— 
on Larix europaea and L. sibirica; and its distribution is practically that 
of its hosts. It is found in the mountains of middle and southern Europe, 
in northern Russia, Siberia, and Asia Minor according to Harz," and is 
especially abundant and frequently of large size in the neighbourhood of 
Archangel, coming on the market in sizes varying from ‘‘} to Io und 
15 Pfund’’ weight. 
The first record in America appears to have been made by Calkins’ 
in 1886, who found it on living white pine in Michigan. He and others 
are said to have used it in place of quinine. Macoun collected it on 
spruce in British Columbia (1889), MacDougal collected it on the same 
host in Montana (1901), and Longyear on Larix laricina and Pinus 
strobus in Michigan. Since then, it has been reported from Nevada, 
Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, Wisconsin 
and Wyoming. Hedgcock® states that it is known to attack Abies 
concolor, Larix occidentalis, Picea Engelmanni, P. sitchensis, Pinus 
lambertiana, P. murrayana, P. ponderosa, Pseudotsuga taxifolia, and 
Tsuga heterophylla. He adds that ‘in northern Arizona, Pinus ponderosa 
is diseased more often with this than any other fungus’’. To the list 
given Graves? adds Abies magnifica in California, Weir®* reports F. offici- 
nalis on living Pinus monticola, Abies grandis, and Tsuga mertensiana 
in Idaho, and Meinecke cites Pinus Jeffreyt. Meinecke," in his neat 
little Manual for Field Use, ‘‘ Forest Tree Diseases Common in Cali- 
fornia and Nevada”’, affirms that ‘‘the chalky quinine fungus (Fomes 
laricis) forms, together with Trametes pini and Armillaria mellea, the 
only serious menace to sugar pine, on which it is most often found. 
It may, however, attack Jeffrey, yellow, and lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, 
and other conifers. ... The fruiting bodies often grow on large open 
wounds, forming large irregular, perpendicular rows. Two or more 
fruiting bodies may appear on the same tree at different heights. Alto- 
gether the fruiting bodies are not common’’. Neuman’ extends the list 
to Larix laricina in Wisconsin. He says that the fungus has been 
reported by various collectors as found on larch in the northern part 
of the state and a doubtful specimen is reported by Dodge from Algoma, 
Ontario. He reproduces a photograph of a gigantic specimen preserved 
in the museum of the University of Wisconsin, which measures 65 cm. 
in height and 105 cm. in circumference at its thickest part, and which 
shows about 70 strata. 
