306 
The Ganlcer of the Larch. 
attacked at the end of its second year, as shown in the lower 
portion of the figure. The stem has been attacked in five other 
places a little above or below the place where the section was 
made, bnt sufficiently near to exhibit some of the injury done 
to the tree at each place. The canker shown at its origin out- 
side the second j^ear's growth has prevented the wood forming 
from A to A. At A on the left side of the stem the new wood 
has extended over the injured portions of the previous two 
years' growth. The continuation of the twelfth annual ring is 
broken by the second canker from B to B, and extends in the 
section to the eighth year's growth, the origin of the canker 
existing lower down the sbem. The next interruption to the 
Fig. 3. -Section of stem o£ hircli, from SarsJeii, Oxon, attacked by canker iit tlic end of its third 
year. Tln'ce-foiirtlis of tlic natural size. 
I'ormation of wood is shown between c and c, and the gap here 
is filled in with a mass of resin, v. The fungus has destroyed 
the bai k between i) and D, and the efiect of the disease is also 
shown on either side of E. The white patches in the bark 
represent mntted masses of mycelium. 
The fact that the trees are attacked in the early stages of 
tlieir life, .as shown in the sectitms. is confirmed by a recent 
examination of a young plantation at Sarsden planted in 1887. 
A number of diseased larches were found which had been 
attacked in 1 888 in the portion of the tree that was two years 
old. 
The evil influence of the fungus on tlio larch is, as we have 
seen, entirely due to the life of the mycelium of the fungus in 
