Report of the Botanist. 23 



The destruction of the balsams was not limited to the single grove in which 

 it was first observed. In several places along the road between Summit and 

 Jefferson, dead and dying balsams were noticed ; but the affected trees were not 

 very numerous, and it would not be a difficult matter, with prompt and united 

 action, to arrest the progress of the mischief. If each man, on whose land the 

 balsams grow, would, as soon as signs of the presence of the trouble are mani- 

 fest, cut the affected trees, strip off the bark and burn it, he would, by so doing, 

 destroy the colonies of larvae, and prevent the further spread of the mischief. 

 It is not at all probable that trees once attacked and showing signs of death can 

 be saved, and it would be far better to cut them immediately than to allow them 

 to remain as nurseries for these tiny marauders. 



Four species of fungi are now known that attack the leaves of our balsams. 

 None of these, so far as I am aware, actually kill the tree, but all of them 

 necessarily detract somewhat from the vigor and the beauty of it. One of them, 

 a kind of cluster-cup fungus, known as Peridermium elatinum, or fir-tree 

 Peridermium, consists of minute whitish cups, filled with a deep yellow or orange- 

 colored powder, which is the spores or seeds of the fungus. These cups burst 

 forth from and occupy the whole of the lower surface of the leaf. This fungus 

 is very thorough in its work, for every leaf on the affected branches is made to 

 support its share of the cups. It detracts so much from the vigor of the leaves 

 that they have a sickly, yellowish-green color, and do not attain more than half 

 the size of healthy leaves. Still they are not killed at once. They remain on 

 the tree during the summer, but fall sometime before the next succeeding crop 

 of leaves is developed, for on the affected branches, only the leaves of a single 

 season can be found, and these are always on the terminal shoots, and always 

 affected by the fungus. From this,<jt appears that the disease is in the branch, 

 and bursts out and makes itself visible in each successive crop of leaves. The 

 branches affected by it are deformed, irregular, contorted and massed together, 

 forming that peculiar dense and intricate growth, commonly known as " crow's 

 nest." It is not often that more than one or two branches of a tree, with the 

 branchlets, are attacked, consequently it is an easy matter to cut off the affected 

 branches and relieve the tree from this incumbrance. 



Another similar fungus, the Peridermium balsameum, attacks the leaves in 

 a sort of hap-hazard manner, affecting some here and some there. This fungus, 

 like the other, consists of minute cups that burst forth from the lower surface of 

 the leaves, but the cups are generally longer and cylindrical, and filled with a 

 pale or whitish powder. The affected leaves in this case attain their normal 

 size, but they lose their green color and become pale yellowish or almost white, 

 and being scattered everywhere among the green leaves, they give a singular 

 variegated appearance to the foliage. I have never met with this fungus except 

 on small balsams in the Adirondack wilderness, and near Summit, and it is not 

 very likely to prove detrimental to transplanted or cultivated trees. 



In a grove of young balsams, near Summit, patches or groups of dead leaves 

 were observed on many of the branches of some of the trees. An examination 

 showed that these leaves were affected by two fungi, which, in some instances, 

 were associated together in the same group of leaves, and even on the same leaf; 

 in other cases each fungus occupied exclusively its own group of leaves. One 

 of them is known to botanists by the name Hypoderma nervisequum, or nerve- 

 following Hypoderma. It forms a black line along the midrib of the leaf, 

 being more prominent and uniform on the lower surface. This thick black line 

 or ridge at length ruptures along the center. It contains within a multitude 

 of microscopic, nearly cylindrical, membranous sacks, each of which contains 

 eight long narrow spores. 



