STUDIES OF SOME SHADE TREE AND 

 TIMBER DESTROYING FUNGI.* 



BY GKO. F. ATKINSON. 



A great deal of attention has been given in the past to the 

 study of injuries to trees caused by the microscopic fungi, but 

 comparatively little study has been made of the relation of the 

 larger fungi to the destruction of trees and timber. The most 

 notable work which has been accomplished in this direction 

 is that of Robert Hartigof Miinchen, Germany, whose contribu- 

 tions have appeared in the publications of the * ' Forstlische 

 Versuchsanstalt," in his book on the Diseases of Trees, 

 and in other places. During the past two years there have 

 appeared several excellent bulletins from the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden and from the U. S. Dept. of Agr., giving in detail the 

 results of some work by H. vonSchrenk, of Washington Uni- 

 versity, St. Louis. 



About five years ago the writer began studying the injuries 

 which some of the higher fungi produce upon shade trees and 

 timber trees. Very little of this work has as yet been published. 

 Use has been made however of some of the studies and photo- 

 graphs accumulated in the progress of the work, in the author's 

 "Mushrooms', Edible, Poisonous, Etc" (1900), and in other 

 places ; while a short article was published on ' ' Some Wood 

 Destroying Fungi," as special report No. 9 in the Geological 

 Survey of Louisiana, Feb. 1900. It has been my plan as far as 

 possible to select one or more individual cases and then endeavor 

 to trace the history of the relation of the fungus and its host. 

 This would include a study of the present conditions, and an 

 effort to determine, by examination, the time in the past when 

 the fungus entered, the mode of its entrance and progress, as 

 well as the probable cause of the wound which provided the 

 ranee court for the tree enemy. In a number of cases these 



Pi 



e principal facts in this paper were presented before the Mass. Hort. 

 Boston, Mar. 1901. 



