BLEMISHES IN" SASSAFRAS AND SWEET GUM. 



79 



and are walled by soft wood. The stains are heavy and may pene- 

 trate one or two layers of wood beneath and five to ten or more layers 

 over the wounds. These defects are exceedingly objectionable and 

 unfit the wood for its limited use in carpentry. 



Sassafras (Sassafras variifolium) . — The specimen examined is from 

 a tree one side of which had been killed by sapsucker pecking and 

 is now partly covered by new growth. As the wounds themselves 

 have not healed, their appearance where buried by succeeding layers 

 of wood is unusual. Along the plane of separation of the new 

 and dead wood 

 are long series of 

 partly filled 

 blackened pecks, 

 with stain all 

 along the line (PI. 

 XI, fig. 5). The 

 wood covering 

 the pecks is 

 gnarled and full 

 of stained cracks 

 and is worthless 

 for any construc- 

 tive purpose. 



California 

 laurel ( Umbel- 

 lularia calif or - 

 nica). — ■ Defects 

 resulting from 

 sapsucker work 

 are conspicuous 

 black checks ac- 

 companied by extensive lateral staining and much gnarly wood 

 They are highly objectionable in this valuable wood. 



Efiects of sapsucker work on wood of red bay (Persea borbonia). 

 Stains, checks, and long fissures. 



THE SWEET GUM FAMILY (aLTINGIACE^e) . 



The wood of the single native species of this family is injured by 

 sapsuckers. 



Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) . — In a specimen from Abbe- 

 ville, La., transverse black stains three-eighths inch wide surround 

 the healed punctures, from which brown stains penetrate the grain 

 vertically half an inch each way. These blemishes are objectionable 

 from an ornamental standpoint but not materially so otherwise. In 

 a trunk from the Santee Club, South Carolina, besides stains which 



