SHADE TREE AND TIMBER 'DESTROYING FUNGI. 207 



The red spruce example, in the Adirondack woods, was a tree 

 of handsome proportions near Pearcefield Falls, in the Raquette 

 River, left by the lumberman a few years prior to 1896, the 

 season when I observed the tree. At some distance there was 

 no indication that the tree was diseased and I enquired of my 

 guide, who had at one time some experience in cutting timber, 

 why the tree was left. ' That tree ain't no good," he replied. 

 As we ap- 

 proached 

 nearer, he 

 said, "don't 

 you see the 

 gum running 

 from all the 

 knot holes?" 

 This he ex- 

 plained was 

 regarded as a 

 sure sign of 

 " heart rot." 

 Furthermore 

 the tree was 

 "checked" 

 on one side, 

 the crack be- 

 ing quite 

 large and 

 extending for 

 some d i s- 



tance. The check was probably caused by a wrench given the 

 weakened tree during a heavy wind. There was no other exter- 

 nal evidence that the tree was diseased, and to satisfy myself that 

 the tree suffered from ' ' heart rot, ' ' I had my guide cut out a 

 few blocks of the wood from the trunk. Two inches beneath the 

 bark, the wood was found in a '" dozed " condition. The heart 

 was not in a very advanced stage of decay though the area was 

 very extensive. The mycelium visible to the eye was very 

 scanty. Still the wood showed numerous fine perforations, and 



63. Fruit bodies of Polyporus borealis, showing 

 shaggy cap. 



