26 
The fruit of the fungus is usually not formed until the tree has 
been killed, or nearly so, by its mycelium; nevertheless, the 
accumulation of extruded resin round the collar. 
he spores of the fungus dispersed by wind and carried by the 
fur of animals, &c., germinate and first form a delicate, white 
cobweb-like my celium, which soon produces blackish, cord- like, 
radiating strands of mycelium called rhizomorphs. These bodies, 
which vary in thickness from that of thick thread to moderately 
thick Desi continue to inerease in length, travelling a few inches 
underground, until they come in contact with the root of a tree, 
when the cortex is pierced and a firm white sheet of mycelium 
is formed between the cortex and the wood. This feli gradually 
passes up the trunk for some distance between the bark of the 
o n 
roots and the collar, entering the cortex at various points. 
Delicate — of mycelium extend from the felt formed under - 
the cortex into the wood, principally along the medullary rays, — 
and eh de apis the vessels, which soon become choked with 
a dense mass of m 
In conifers the ee fills the resin-canals and destroys the — - 
cells forming their walls, the resin exuding through the bark in | 
large quantities and collecting round the am hence the name 
* resin-flux " sometimes given to this dis 1 
Ata itor stage of the disease the irf of the roots and collar | 
are covered with a white felt of mycelium, which exhibits a pale - 
go ee Sh light in the dark 4 
Afte the dea th of the tree, numerous stout, branching, black . 
ood a 
Preventive ddr —There are two methods b hick: a tree — 
may become infected :—(1) spores; (2) underground rhizomorphs. - 
Infection by means of spores may be prevented by destroying all 4 
fungi growing in the neighbourhood of valuable trees. The 
fungi should be ji dens: and bur kicking over and E 
ned ; ER 
trampling under foot simply disperses the spores and does more 
harm than good. 
a tree 
