1916] FomMeEs OFFICINALIS (Vill.) 205 
place anywhere below the crown, and not just next to the ground as in 
P. Schweintzu. 
Fomes officinalis is also a wound parasite, to be classed with such 
forms as Fomes igniarius, P. sulphureus, and P. Schweinitzu. It appears 
most frequently in mature trees, the fruiting bodies being commonly 
found on the still living hosts, and seems as certainly as in the case of 
other wound parasites to be the cause of their eventual death. There 
are no data on the amount of the losses due to this agent. In some 
regions it appears to be absent or infrequent, while in other parts con- 
siderable losses must have resulted (as in certain over-mature pine areas 
of Ontario) judging from the frequency of the officinalis decay in stand- 
ing and fallen timber. My personal knowledge of its distribution 
includes the west end of the Lake Ontario region, a part of: Nipissing 
District, and parts of Algonquin Park Forest Reserve. Mr. G. W. 
Bartlett, Superintendent of Algonquin Park, likewise informs me that 
he has seen it in many places throughout the Ottawa Valley, both in 
Ontario and Quebec. 
As to its depredations elsewhere we know that, especially in the 
west, various conifers are attacked, though there are no data as to how 
extensively. Hedgecock” and Meinecke report it to be the most 
destructive agent of the two by far most important commercial pines 
of Western America. They state that the principal losses to Pinus 
ponderosa in northern Arizona are due to F. officinalis, and that every- 
where it is to be counted as one of the three most serious enemies of 
Pinus lambertiana. Larsen and Woodbury, in a bulletin just issued 
(Sugar Pine, U.S. Dept. of Agric. Bull. No. 426, December, 1916) are 
in agreement that ‘Trametes pint and Fomes laricis (officinalis) are by 
far the most destructive of the wood-destroying fungi which attack 
sugar pine’”’ 
SUMMARY. 
1. Historically, Fomes officinalis occupied an important place in 
medicine, dating back to Dioscorides, and is still officially recognized 
in several European countries. Long before its recognition by botanists 
in America it was used by the early settlers in Ontario and Quebec for 
various purposes, including the preparalion of yeast for bread making, 
and was known to them as the ‘‘Pineapple Fungus”’.* This is the 
first botanical record of its occurrence in those provinces. The firstT 
*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. 
