REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST IQI2 7 
excellent foundation for the study of these interesting though 
oiten considered nearly worthless and annoying shrubs and 
trees. He has also added to this, descriptions of 25 new species 
of this genus. 
In places where the chestnut bark disease, Diaporthe 
parasitica Murrill, has obtained a foothold it still continues 
its destructive work. The chestnut tree is common in the 
central and eastern parts of Rensselaer county. Its bark disease 
has been reported from both the northern and southern borders 
of the county. Two visits have been made the past season to 
the town of Sand Lake in the central part of the county to look 
for the disease, but hitherto no evidence of its presence there 
has been found. It seems remarkable that the disease should 
occur in the northern and southern borders only, unless its 
approach has been made from two different points of infection 
situated in nearly opposite directions from the center of the 
county. With the disease both in the northern and in the 
southern borders it is perhaps too much to expect that the inter- 
vening space can long escape attack. It would be well for the 
owners of chestnut timber land to keep a sharp lookout for it 
and promptly remove any affected trees that may be discovered, 
Strip off the bark and burn it at once, that the disease may be 
kept in check as much as possible. 
A small rocky knob at the north end of Lake Placid in Essex 
county is locally known by the name Eagles eyrie. It is covered 
. with woods, the prevailing trees being red spruce and paper or 
canoe birch. These vie with each other in the size and length 
of their trunks. I have seen no more stately and no finer speci- 
mens of them in any other part of the Adirondacks. The trail 
leading from the shore of Lake Placid to the top of this moun- 
tain is about half a mile long and neither very rough nor very 
steep. At three stations on this trail the leaves of the striped 
maple, Acer pennsylvanicum L., were wilted and 
drooping. An examination of the base of the trunk revealed a 
mass of white mycelioid filaments infesting it and the roots. 
The fungus was not in fruiting condition and its systematic 
location could not be ascertained. The attack was apparently 
so severe that it doubtless will eventually destroy the lives of 
the diseased trees. 
Near the red schoolhouse in the town of North Elba, Essex 
county, there is a patch of shrubs of wicopy or leatherwood, 
