210 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
pounds are lost every year through the damage caused by this 
fungus. The disease takes the form of a kind of ring-shake, 
caused by the mycelium spreading round an annual ring, and 
producing decomposition of the wood. The spores find an 
entrance through a wound, generally a broken branch. The 
only remedy is to cut out the affected trees, which are easily 
detected by the presence of the dark fructifications on the stems. 
The disease may spread fairly rapidly, as the old woods are 
only visited once every ten years for thinning purposes. 
Another fungus of scarcely less importance is Peridermium 
pint. The mycelium of this fungus interferes with the circula- 
tion of the sap of the tree, the crowns become “ dry-headed,” 
the needles turn brown and fall off, and the tree ultimately 
dies. Small groups of trees all more or less affected were very 
noticeable, showing that the disease had been transmitted from 
the one to the other. The only remedy is to cut out all attacked 
trees, but when too heavy thinnings are not desired, trees which 
have only lost the needles of their under branches, and which 
show fairly healthy leaders, are left over till the next thinning. 
Until recently, it was the practice to leave the best trees of one 
rotation to stand over till the end of the following rotation, but 
it was found that these standards became “ dry-headed”’ while 
surrounded by the young crop of the next rotation, and the 
practice has been discontinued. 
Great damage is done to the young Scots pine by the needle- 
shedding fungus (Hysterium pinastri). It causes the needles to 
turn brownish-red and fall off. Plants up to six years old suffer 
most, and they usually succumb. Older trees of all ages may 
show signs of attack, but they usually manage to survive it. 
Of the root fungi, the most destructive is Trametes radtciperda. 
This fungus only attacks the Scots pine on good soil (which was 
part of a glacial moraine). The heads of the attacked trees are 
more or less compressed looking, and the branches black in 
colour. They are to be felled in a clear-cutting this year, 
and the ground is to be replanted with red oak (Quercus 
rubra), the damper parts being stocked with the American 
white ash (Fraxinus alba). 
BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
Of the many interesting departments in connection with the 
Forest Academy, not the least so is the Botanical Garden. It 
