248 



THE PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



Fig. 66. 



the next year, and these bands develop into long brown spore-bearing 

 pustules, and gradually redden and swell, but only burst and scatter the 

 spores in the following April and May to infect the new foliage. The 

 only remedy is cutting and burning infected twigs, and careful thinning. 



* The Pine Stem-rot fungus, Trametes pini (Fig. 66), a wound-surface 

 parasite, chiefly attacks Pines about 40 years old or more, also Spruce, 

 Larch, and Silver Fir, as wounds on younger trees usually close up by 

 resin-outflow before the fungus can obtain a firm foothold. The hyphce 

 destroy the cell - walls of the woody tissues and enter the heartwood ; 

 and the mycelium extends up and down the stem, forming long ring- or 

 heart-shakes, and soon producing rot, while the sapwood usually remains un- 



infected. Tn Pine 

 and Larch only 

 the heartwood is 

 rotted, but in 

 Spruce and Silver 

 Fir all the stem 

 rots. The dis- 

 eased wood first 

 becomes reddish- 

 brown, then white 

 patches appear 

 here and there, 

 and the mycel- 

 ium issues from 

 branch - holes or 

 through the bark, 

 and forms a 

 brown, corky- 

 woody, bracket- 

 shaped sporophore, which lives for many years, showing concentric ridges, 

 and varying up to about 10 in. diameter. Infected trees should be 

 thinned out ; and any Conifers pruned should have the wound-surfaces 

 well tarred. 



* The Red-rot Root-fungus, Forties annosus, syn. Trametes radiciperda 

 (Fig. 67), chiefly attacks the roots of Pines from about 5 years old upwards, 

 and also other Conifers, and spreads centrifugally from root to root. It is 

 sometimes found on roots of broad-leaved trees (especially Beech and 

 Birch), but is not then so destructive or so apt to become epidemic as in 

 Conifer plantations. Young plants, poles, and trees attacked soon show 

 pale needles and stunted shoots (as also in attacks of Agaricus melleus), 

 then rot near the roots and die suddenly, and the disease quickly spreads, 

 infection taking place wherever a diseased root comes in contact with 



About i natural size. 



Rot in Pine caused by Trametes pini. 



a. Bracket-shaped sporophore. 



