DETAILED ACCOUNT OF SPECIFIC DISEASES OF PLANTS 493 



forests of the eastern United States, it has been the subject of much 

 legislation and also a copious bibliography has been formed by the 

 appearance of papers on its parasitism, life history and the remedial 

 measures to be taken to combat it. The chestnut blight fungus was 



Fig. 172. — Perithecial pustules of chestnut blight fungus (Endothia parasitica) 

 in the crevices of bark of a fallen chestnut tree. (Photo by Wm, Currie, Bull. 5, 

 Penna. Chestnut Tree Blight Com., 1913.) 



discovered by Merkel in 1904 on American Chestnut trees {Castanea 

 dentata) in the New York Zoological Park. It was studied by Murrill 

 during 1906 by pure culture and by inoculation on healthy chestnut 

 trees, and an account was published of the fungus as a new species in 

 Torreya (6 : 186-189) '^^ 1906. 



