SAP-STAIN, MOLD, AND DECAY IN GREEN WOOD. 9 



Hedgcock {19) identified the following species of Ceratostomella 

 as responsible for the discolorations produced in certain woods : 



C. pilifera (Fr.) Wint., in the sapwood of several species of pine (Pinus), 

 fir (Abies), oak (Quercus), and ash (Fraxinus). 



C. schrenkiana n. sp., in short-leaf pine {Pinus echinata Mill.). 



C. ecMnella E. and E., in freshly cut heartwood and sapwood of beech (Fagus 

 atropunicea (Marsh) Sudworth). 



C. capillifera n. sp., in wood of red gnm {Liquidam^er styradflua L.). 



C pluriannulata n. sp., in blue sapwood of red oak {Quercus rubra L.). 



C. minor n. sp., in Arizona pine {Pinus arizonica Eng.). 



C. exigua n. sp., in dead and dying trees of scrub pine {Pinus virginiana 

 Mill.). 



C. moniliformis n. sp., in red gum {Liguidambar styradflua L.). 



Miinch (31) split up Ceratostomella pilifera Fries into a series 

 of new species, as follows : 



1 Ceratostomella pini, the important blue-stain fungus of pine. 



2. The pilifera group, distinguished by the secondary fruiting bodies : 



(a) C. piceae, with an associated Graphium stage, possibly GrapJiium 



penicilUoides Corda, in species of pine and fir. 

 (&) C. cana, with an associated but unclassified Graphium stage. This 



species he also found in pine wood, 

 (c) C. coerulea, having no associated Graphium stage. 



With these species of Ceratostomella Miinch includes two unrelated 

 fungi, Endoconidio'phora coertilescens and Clados'poriuTn sp., as 

 causing discolorations in coniferous timber.^ 



Von Schrenk (4-?), in his studies of the " blue wood" in dead and 

 dying stands of the western yellow pine {Pinus ponderosa Laws.), 

 found that the spores of Ceratostomella blown about by wind or 

 carried by insects are often deposited in the exposed ends left by the 

 breaking of branches or in the holes made by the bark and wood 

 boring beetles. There, under the favorable conditions which usually 

 prevail, they germinate and readily produce in a short time many 

 colorless, branching hyphae. The hyphse grow into the bark tissues, 

 then into the cambium, and from there into the medullary rays. 

 With age the hyphse take on a brown hue. 



According to Von Schrenk {.Ifl. pp. 18, 19), " one of the first effects 

 seen after the hyphse have entered the medullary ray cells is the grad- 

 ual solution of the walls separating the medullary ray cells from one 

 another (fig. 2, 1, ^, 3). The walls which separate the ray cells 

 from the neighboring wood cells may become very thin, as shown in 

 the middle ray (fig. 2, i) , but they are rarely dissolved entirely. The 

 intermediate walls, on the other hand, entirely disappear. This 



"In a recent publication, C, J. Humphrey (23) describes a fungus, LamospJmeria 

 pesisula (B. and C.) Sacc, as the cause of a blue-black stain in certain hardwoods, par- 

 ticularly beech and red gum. More detailed information concerning this fungus, as well 

 as certain species of Ceratostomella, is given by E. E. Hubert (21). 



75579°— 22 2 



