264 



Mycologia 



there is an apparently constant relation between the presence of 

 a decayed area in the trunk and the formation of tyloses in the 

 outer wood. While the data on these points are by no means so 

 complete as to make possible wholly satisfactory explanations of 

 the conditions mentioned, the observations already made seem of 

 sufficient interest to make their publication worth while. 



Infection of Coppice Shoots from Diseased Stumps 



When the large plantations referred to above were first cut 

 over, the trees were from twenty to twenty-four years old. At 

 that time many of the stumps were rotten at the center. Un- 

 doubtedly they were affected in most cases by Polystictus versi- 

 color, for many of the trees on both the Farlington and Hunne- 

 well plantations were seriously decayed by this fungus at the 

 time of cutting, and in certain portions of these plantations many 

 of the stumps are now bearing numerous sporophores of this 

 species. 



Yet sprouts from these partly rotted stumps, even from those 

 which bear sporophores, show no external evidences of fungus 

 infection and are as well developed as those from sound stumps. 

 Six-year old sprouts on partly rotted stumps are fully as large 

 as those of the same age on sound stumps and bear as many 

 seed pods. To determine whether these sprouts were actually 

 free from fungus infection or whether the fungus was present 

 and would finally result in the weakening and death of the sprout, 

 the writer spent several days in a study of the second growth 

 at the Hunnewell plantation. Fortunately for this work, eighty 

 acres of six-year old second growth was sprouted only a few 

 weeks before his visit (March, 1912), and the sprouts were still 

 lying where they had been cut. 



A careful examination of this eighty-acre tract showed that 

 while only a very few of the shoots from partly decayed stumps 

 showed any external evidence of fungus infection, a large pro- 

 portion were rotted at the heart. On the other hand, practically 

 none of the shoots from sound stumps showed decayed areas. 

 In one forty-acre tract nearly two hundred stumps were counted 

 which bore sporophores of Polystictus versicolor and the sprouts 

 from nearly all of these showed rotten hearts. On fifteen large 



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