144 TIMBER AND SOME OF ITS DISEASES. [CHAP. 



fungus parasites. The chief reason for popular 

 misconceptions regarding these points is want of 

 accurate knowledge of the structure and functions 

 of wood on the one hand, and of the nature and 

 biology of fungi on the other. The words disease, 

 parasitism, decomposition, &c., convey very little 

 meaning unless the student has had opportunities 

 of obtaining some such knowledge of the biology of 

 plants as can only be got in a modern laboratory : 

 under this disadvantage the reader may not always 

 grasp the full significance of what follows, but it will 

 be at least clear that such fungi demand attention as 

 serious enemies of our timber. 



It will be advantageous to illustrate the remarks I 

 have to make by a description of one or two of the 

 contents of what is perhaps one of the most instructive 

 and remarkable museums in the world the Museum 

 of Forest Botany in Munich, which I have lately had 

 the good fortune to examine under the guidance of 

 Prof. Robert Hartig, the distinguished botanist to 

 whose energy the Museum is due, and to whose 

 brilliant investigations we owe nearly all that has 

 been discovered of the diseases of trees caused by 

 the Hymenomycetes. Not only is Prof. Hartig's 

 collection unique in itself, but the objects are 

 classical, and illustrate facts which are as yet hardly 



