spruce Injured by Fungus Northwest of Lake Winnipeg. 215 



A little further west, on Burntwood Lake, and southerly 

 up the File River, the damage was more striking, whole trees, 

 instead of only the tips of branches, standing yellow and appar- 

 ently dead, the boughs wreathed with cobwebs. 



Along the Grassy River, another tributary of the Nelson, 

 about sixty miles south of the Burntwood, the trees were affected 

 in like manner to a point a little east of Wekusko Lake. It was 

 noticed that on points projecting from the north shore of the 

 lake, trees on the east side were quite yellow, while those on the 

 west side were only tipped, and generally the more exposed 

 sides of the trees everywhere were most affected. 



Throughout the whole region, white spruces alone were 

 attacked, though black spruces are common, and often grow in 

 close association with the white. A small branch, with the 

 fungi, was sent by Prof. Macoun to Prof. Geo. F. Atkinson of 

 Cornell University, who writes: 



"It is Peridermium decolorans Pk., 27th Rept. N.Y. State 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., 104, 1875. This has a wide distribution in 

 alpine regions and northern North America. It occurs on Picea 

 Mariana, rubra, Engelmannii, Sitchensis and Canadensis, the 

 latter one being the white spruce. 



Here it occurs along the mountains of the Pacific from 

 Banff, British Columbia, into Alaska. Probably the reason it 

 does not occur on the black spruce, is because this form on the 

 white spruce may be a biological or physiological form. You 

 will find an account of its distribution on pages 428 and 429 of the 

 August, 1906, number of the Bulletin of the Torrev Botanical 

 Club." 



The attack of this fungus, though probably only in extreme 

 cases resulting in the death of the tree affected, must retard its 

 growth, and, if recurring year after year, to a very marked degree. 



There are specimens in the herbarium of the Geological 

 Survey, collected b}'^ Prof. Macoun in 1881 near Lake Manitoba, 

 but no serious injury to spruce trees in that region has been re- 

 ported. 



WILLIAM McINNES. 

 Geol. Survey, Ottawa, Canada. 



The Annual Meeting of the American Forestry Association 

 will be held in Washington on Wednesday, January 9th. 1907. 

 Reduced rates on all railways have been secured for members 

 and friends. Programmes, full particulars as to rates, etc., and 

 other information mav be had from the Secretarv of the Associ- 

 ation. 



