y) 
THE ‘‘ BLUE” FUNGUS. 15 
in the State of Nebraska outside of the arid belts and in the Black 
Hills, the wood will last from four to six years when placed in the 
ground in the form of a cross-tie, for instance. Dead trees may stand 
in the forest for many years without decaying, especially when killed 
by fire, but ordinarily when the bark remains on the trees they begin 
to decay after the third year. 
From observations made on the ** black-top” trees now standing in 
the forest it would seem that the lasting power of the ‘* blue” wood 
would be very small. It is perhaps not fair to compare these trees 
with sound ones, for their bark is full of holes, giving fungus spores 
every opportunity to enter, as described below. When placed in the 
ground this wood rots very fast, if one can draw conclusions from the 
dead tops lying around in the forest. There is every reason why it 
should rot rapidly. The hyphe of the ‘* blue” fungus have opened pas- 
sageways for the rapid entrance of water and for other fungi in almost 
every medullary ray. Dried wood will probably last a long while, 
especially if properly piled, so as to allow the air to circulate between 
the separate pieces. When sawed and split for cord-wood, the ** blue” 
wood should keep just as long as the green wood. The tendency to rapid 
decay can be largely done away with by treating the wood with some 
preservative. Ties were cut during the past spring from green timber 
and from dead trees. These were shipped to Somerville, Tex., where 
they were impregnated with zinc chloride. These ties were laid in 
the tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad and are now under observation. 
A second lot of ties has been cut during the past summer from green 
trees and from ‘‘sorrel tops,” ‘‘red tops,” and ‘‘black tops.” These 
will be treated within a short time and laid in the track of a Mexican 
railway so as to determine the relative resistance of the various grades 
of ** blue” timber in a tropical climate as compared with the green tim- 
ber. On the particular road chosen for this experiment the life of very 
resistant timbers is short. 
THE ‘‘BLUE’’ FUNGUS. 
The blue color of the wood is due to the growth of a fungus in 
the wood cells. The staining of wood due to fungi has been known 
for many years, especially the form known as ‘‘green wood” (ods 
verdv). In Europe this green coloration attracted the attention of 
foresters and investigators as early as the middle of the last century, 
and a number of descriptions and discussions appeared from time to 
time (particularly in France), in which an attempt was made to account 
for this phenomenon. A green dye was extracted from this wood, 
which at one time was thought to be valuable because of its absolute 
permanency. Various dicotyledonous woods showed the green color; 
among others, beech, oak, and horse-chestnut. 
