302 Studies in Forestry [CHAP. xin. 



most numerously during damp seasons. They are of a dirty- 

 brown or honey colour, with darker scales ; whilst the lamellae 

 are yellowish-white, with reddish-brown spots forming later on. 



Characteristic features of this disease are its occurrence 

 here and there in patches, and the rapidity with which it kills 

 young plants in full vigour, after they have made good growth 

 in height during the season ; hence damage from this cause 

 is easily distinguishable from death caused by insects, drought, 

 or the like, when the plant only succumbs after a longer or 

 shorter period of sickly growth. To prevent the occurrence 

 of the disease, the stumps of broad-leaved species should, if 

 possible, be carefully grubbed up, before sowing or planting 

 coniferous crops. 



The best practical means of preventing its spread consists 

 in the pulling up of the plants attacked with all their roots, 

 and burning them ; whilst the isolation of these places may be 

 arranged for by digging small trenches round them to a depth of 

 i-i ft. in order to hinder the subterraneous extension of the 

 mycelium. Careful collection of the older saprophytic mush- 

 rooms on old stumps is also advisable, and none the less so on 

 account of their being edible. Where blanks have been 

 occasioned in young coniferous crops by this disease, it is best 

 to fill them with transplants of broad-leaved species, as conifers 

 are more exposed to a recurrence of the disorder. 



2. Trametes radiciperda, R. Hartig, the Root Fungus. This 

 is one of the most serious of fungoid diseases in coniferous 

 woods. Scots and Weymouth Pines and Spruce suffer in 

 a much greater degree from it than Silver Fir and other species. 

 Young plants, poles, and trees, are seen to rot away suddenly 

 near the roots and die off; whilst other individuals near them 

 are also attacked and succumb, often causing serious inter- 

 ruption of the canopy and sometimes blanks of considerable 

 size. 



Infection proceeds as a rule from the diseased roots of 

 a neighbouring stem ; but it may also take place direct from 



