MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



crystals were found whose identity has not yet been deter- 

 mined, as the amount found was too small to admit of 

 analysis. This substance had the following properties: 

 very light, like fine cotton wool, or cocoon silk, apparently 

 very pure; volatilizes at once on platinum (heated) with- 

 out burning; insoluble in water, soluble in hot alcohol, 

 from which it crystallizes in shapes looking like sea moss ; 

 very soluble in petroleum ether, and extremely so in chlo- 

 roform; residue colloid, resinous; melting point 174 C., 

 pretty sharp without decomposition; chloroform solution 

 does not absorb bromine; sublimes very readily, forming 

 beautiful hairlike crystals. 



A number of trees were found in which the holes, instead 

 of being filled as stated above, were nearly empty. They had 

 a shining white lining ( PI. 4, fig. 3) from which isolated 

 white fibers projected into the cavity. The white fibers were 

 found to be pure cellulose. 



When the brown contents are brushed out of the holes a 

 perfectly even and smooth surface is left on all sides, indi- 

 cating a very sharp dividing line between the decayed ele- 

 ments and those apparently sound. A board from which 

 the powder has been taken looks as if a number of grooves 

 had been cut with a gouge chisel (PI. 6). 



In a tree the peckiness starts in the upper part, i. e., the 

 majority of the trees are perfectly sound at the base, and 

 very much diseased in the upper portion of the trunk and 

 the larger branches. The decay may extend but a few 

 inches up and down, or for several feet, or through the 

 entire length of the tree. The youngest branches in which 

 any peckiness was found were 60 years old. Eadially it 

 may appear over the entire cross-section or on but one side. 

 It is by no means the rule that the innermost rings 

 are the first ones to decay (PI. 1) as might be supposed 

 from analogy with other timber diseases. A large tree at 

 Arbor, Mo., approximately 300 years old, was pecky to 

 within 25 ft. of the base, another to within 35 ft. The 

 8 



