76 TWENTY-SEVENTH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM. 
Long continued dry weather may be mentioned as one of 
the most probable causes. The terrible destruction of conif- 
erous trees, that happened in the winter of 1871 and 1872, is 
thought by many to be attributable to a lack of the necessary 
amount of moisture; nor so far as Iam informed, did the 
malady of the spruces in the ‘‘ North Woods” attract special 
attention previous to that unfortunate winter. The propor- 
tion of deaths is said to be greatest among the trees of low 
lands ; and this is what might be expected, for such trees are 
generally less vigorous, and therefore less likely to withstand 
any unfavorable change in their circumstances, and especially 
a change from their usual abundance of moisture to a scarcity 
of it. As the miser becomes more miserly by the increase of 
his hoarded treasures, so the rapid destruction of our forests 
may be accelerated by nature herself when man becomes too 
avaricious and too improvident to manifest a just apprecia- 
tion of the wild woodland, one of nature’s choicest gifts. 
An interesting instance of the special liability of weak, 
unthrifty plants to the attacks of parasitic fungi was observed 
in Essex county. Small sphagnous marshes abound among 
the Adirondack Mts., and about the ‘shores of many of the 
small lakes of that region. Upon and about these marshes 
the spruces are almost always small and starved, or sickly in 
appearance. The branches are abundant, the lowest, in most 
cases, springing from the very base of the trunk; but the 
internodes are short and small, indicating very slow growth 
and the leaves seldom attain the usual size, or have the dark, 
green hue of those on more vigorous, healthy plants. The 
closeness of the “ grain,’ or concentric layers ot wood, also 
indicates extreme slowness of growth, thirty rings in one 
instance forming a trunk scarcely more than an inch in 
diameter. 
Also on the high summits of the mountains, a similar 
starved and feeble growth is apparent. The trees become 
dwarfed, bushy and half prostrate. They cling close to the 
eround as if seeking shelter from the fierce winds, while their 
trunks and branches are, generally clad with a shaggy coat of 
lichens, as if some such external protection against the bitter 
cold of those elevated places were needed. So unlike the 
ordinary spruce trees do these appear, that any but a close 
observer might readily be pardoned for doubting if they 
