192 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



been partially or completely defoliated, sometimes two or three 

 times in a season, by the sulphurous fumes from the factories, 

 especially when these fumes were converted into sulphuric acid 

 by the moisture accompanying rain or fog. The result was in- 

 evitable. The vitality of the trees was lessened from year to year 

 by the constant effort to recuperate. The twigs and then the 

 branches gave up the struggle, and when these died and were 

 broken off the resulting wounds became the starting points for 

 the fungi which completed their destruction. Most fungi begin 

 their destructive career in this way and we have every reason 

 to believe that these maples and many other trees along the north 

 shore, recently dead or showing evidence of early dissolution, 

 would still be vigorous and clean limbed except for the blighting 

 effect of the factory fumes. Their final destruction by fungoid 

 growths must be regarded as purely incidental and secondary. 



