126 College of Forestry 
as shown by the transverse view. ‘The separation of the 
wood along the lne of union of the growth rings is now 
less conspicuous, for by this time it has become so thoroughly 
decayed that it tends to break in all directions with equal 
facility, although it still is far more resistant to transverse 
breakage than to breakage in any other direction. 
At the beginning of the decay all the pockets originated 
on the inner face of the early wood. In the latter stages of 
the decay the unequal structure of the two portions of the 
annual ring is overcome, especially in trees in which this 
difficulty is not so pronounced, and the whole of the annual 
ring frequently is uniformly decayed. In general the 
decayed wood is characterized by a single zone of pockets 
occupying most of the annual ring, all of which le well 
within their respective growth rings. In other words, the 
pockets are confined to the interior of each growth ring and 
do not occur with equal facility at the lne of junction of 
two adjacent growth rings as is commonly the case in most 
of the dicotyledonous woods which have a far more uniform 
structure so far as the density of the elements in the early 
and late wood respectively is concerned. 
In the very late stages of the decay, when the unequal 
structure of the two portions of the growth ring is overcome, 
the pockets, by the successive fusion of adjacent ones, may 
extend from one growth ring into the next so that the zonate 
arrangement of the pockets within each growth ring becomes 
entirely obscured. By this time many of the pockets have 
attained an unusually large size, some being 3.5 em. or more 
long and 6 mm. or more broad. They are still highly irreg- 
ular in outline and are separated by very thin, almost 
membrane-like layers of spongy wood. ‘The larger pockets 
are free from contents and their walls appear clean-cut and 
smooth save for numerous mycelial strands, most of the 
larger of which run radially in the wood. ‘The remaining 
woody substance no longer presents a brownish and whitish 
mottled appearance, but the honeycombed wood now is of a 
uniform light brown color. This is due to the complete 
destruction of the partially disintegrated elements that 
