64 _ REPORT OF SCHIMMEL 8 Co. OCTOBER 1915. 
Botanical Notes. | 
Wisconsin medicinal plants. 
On page 22 of the Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, ser. n° 738, gen. ser. 
n° 542, Madison 1914, R. H. Denniston and R. E. Kremers publish a list of medicinal 
plants that grow wild or are cultivated in Wisconsin. No less than 259 species are 
mentioned, some of which are not officinal any longer. 
Dipterocarpus woods. 
The genera Dipterocarpus and Shorea of the N. O. Dipterocarpaceae, which furnish 
gurjun balsam and dammar resin, preponderate in some tropical woods, which then 
are called dipterocarpus woods. Such woods occur in northern British India, Ceylon, 
Burmah, Indo-China, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and right up to the 
Philippines. They are presumably likewise to be found on Celebes and in New Guinea. 
W. H. Brown and D. M. Mathews’) have published an extensive study on Philippine 
dipterocarpus woods, in which the distribution of such woods on the Philippines, their 
economical importance and their botanical composition are discussed. They supply 
considerable quantities of timber without any great costs, provided that the trees are 
felled judiciously. Otherwise it might be that there could not be any fresh growth of 
dipterocarpus, smaller trees of less value taking their place, or even that the woods 
were turned into desert grass lands. It seems to be difficult to plant dipterocarpus 
trees, success being obtained only under uncommonly favourable conditions. 
_ The authors do not say anything with regard to the balsam production; they 
mention the following balsamiferous trees: Dipterocarpus grandiflorus, Blanco, D. tuber- 
culatus, Roxb. and D. vernicifluus, Blanco, as well as the aromatic plants specified 
hereafter: Acacia farnesiana, Willd., Blumea balsamifera, DC., Canangium odoratum, Baill., 
Canarium luzonicum, A. Gray, C. villosum, F. Vill., Cinnamomum Mercado, Vid., Citrus 
Hystrix, DC. and Clausena anisum-olens, Merr. 
Fungus diseases of essential oil plants. 
E. M. Holmes?) gives a review of the fungus diseases affecting the plants yielding 
essential oils. 
The North American Abies balsamea, Mill., which yields Canada balsam, suffers 
from the attacks of a fungus belonging to the Ascomycetes and known as Dasyscypha © 
calycina, Fuchel, or Larch canker. This fungus, which has also been called Peziza 
Willkommu, Hartig, is a wound parasite and may occur wherever the tree trunk is 
injured. It forms small orange-red discs, surrounded by white hairs. An allied species, 
Dasyscypha resinaria, Rehm., likewise attacks Abies balsamea. D. calycina also attacks 
Pinus sylvestris, Linn., Pinus Pumilic, Haenke, and Abies sibirica, Ledeb. On the leaves 
of Abies balsamea, Calyptospora (Pucciniastrum) Goeppertiana, Kuhn (Melampsoraceae) is 
to be found. Its teleutospores occur on species of Vacciniwm (cranberries). Diseased 
Vaccinium plants should, therefore, be destroyed and burnt wherever the Abzes balsamea 
grows. 
Plasmopara nivea, Schr6t., appears on the under side of the leaves of angelica as 
a delicate white mildew. The mycelium is permanent in the roots of some of the host 
plants, but does not seem to affect the percentage of volatile oil yielded"by the root. 
1) Philippine Journ. of Sc. 9 (1914), A. 413, 517. — ?) Perfum. Record 5 (1914), 411, 432. 
