Feb J, 1900.] THE TROPICAL 
AGEICULTURIST. 
541 
ON THE DETERMINATION OF THE 
FUNGI WHICH ATTACK FOREST 
TREES IN INDIA. 
The study of the fungi which are found in the 
forests of India, either as parasities on the leaves or 
as causing decay of the wood, or again as sapro- 
phytic plants on the ground in the forests, is one 
which so far has made but little progress. Most forest 
officers, however, know how exceedingly important 
the subject is, and many of them have had opportu- 
nities of seeing what has been done in Europe to 
work it up, and most especially in Germany. The 
real pioneer in the study of forest-tree pathology was 
undoubtedly Prof. Robert Hartig of Munich, whose 
text book of the " Diseases of Trees," which is avail- 
able to English students in the excellent translation 
of Dr. W Somerville, revised and edited by Prof. 
Marshall Ward, FR S (Macmillian & Co. 1894) is one 
of the most intersting works which a forest officer who 
observes the processes which are going on in the 
forests, inimical to forest tree-growth and develop- 
ment, can study. There is an excellent, if somewhat 
brief, account of the principal European tree fungoid 
diseases, by Mr. W R Fisher, in the 4th Volume of Dr. 
Sohlioh's Manual of Forestry, and another in Prof. 
Marshall Ward's ' Timber and some of its diseases ' 
(Macmillan & Co. 1889). But the most important and 
most astonishing book on the subject is the monu- 
mental work of Dr. Karl Freiherr von Tnbeuf, which 
has been translated into English by Dr. W G Smith 
of Edinburgh as ' Diseases of Plants, induced by 
Cryptogamic Parasites' (Longmans, Green & Co. 1897) 
a work which is practically a dictionary of all that is 
known on the subject and refers not merely to Euro- 
pean plants, but to the plants of the world and those 
OF THEIR FUNGOID DISEASES 
which have been so far discovered. A mere cursory 
examination of Dr. von Tnbeuf's great work is 
sufficient to open the eyes of even the most conserva- 
tive and sceptical of Foresters to the importance of the 
subject and to the amount of information which 
still remains to be obtained regarding it. It is 
clear that there is hardly a plant among the 
higher order that is not affected by some, indeed 
often by many, parasitic and epiphytic fungi ; and the 
wonder is that with so many foes, plants cultivated 
and wild and forest trees are able to maintain success- 
fully their powers of growth and reproduction. So 
far as they were known at the time he wrote, Dr 
von Tubeuf made mention of the Indian species. 
It is fortunate that, so far as observations have yet 
gone, the chief forest trees of the hotter parts of 
India have not been found to be affected by injurious 
fungi to the same extent as are the fore?t trees of 
Europe and their allies of the Himalaya, but in the 
Himalaya the fungi are often very much in evidence 
and even in the plains there are some of considerable 
importance, a few examples of which may be given. 
la January 1891, I visited the 
CH.iNGA MANGA PLANTATION 
with the Forest School students who were on tour 
there under the supervision of the Deputy 
Director, Mr, Fernandez. SSoi far from the Forest 
and Canal Bungalows, in a iow-lying rathsr 
damp area, many dead and dying trees were met with. 
On being cut into, the stems of these trees were found 
to be permeated in every direction by the white 
mycelium of a fungus. At first, we thought that 
possibly the fungus might be one of those species 
which attack only dead wood, but the presence 
of the mycelium in still living trees was 
against this, and after a considerable search, the 
sporophores of a large species were found, with every 
indication that they belonged to the mycelium in the 
wood. The sporophores consisted of a large, dark, 
red-brown, bracket, fixed to the tree at one side close 
to the root ; the upper surface measured perhaps a foot 
to a foofc-and-a-half in length and 6 inches or more 
in breadth, and showed several rings indicating its 
gradual growth. The spores were in tubes on the 
68 
under surface m the manner characteristio of the 
Folypoye,-, and the fungus, on being sent to Kew for 
identifaoatiou, proved to be a new species and was 
described by Mr. G Massee as Polystict us eareqius By 
some authors Pohjstictus is regarded as a section of 
Poll/poms, that large genus of Hymenomyoetous fungi 
which possesses so many members destructive to 
forest trees and timber in Europe, among which per- 
haps the most noticeable is P. sulphureus, which hea 
sporophores very closely resembling those of the 
Ohanga Manga plant. Again, when on tour in 1889 
in the Oasuarina plantations of Nellore in th? Madras 
Presidency, a similar case of dying and dead trees 
was observed, and the only specimen (a very young 
and imperfect one) which was obtained of thesporo- 
phore, was found to be very similar to the Champa 
Manga one and may very likejy have belonged to the 
same species. In both cases, i remember to have very 
strongly urged the local officers to follow up the sub- 
ject,- and specially to study means for getting rid of 
the psst, but I have never since heard if anything 
store was done, and fear that Pohjstictua erjrecjius is 
mill at work trying to ' ruin the beautiful planta- 
tions of Sissoo in the Punjab, and the Casuarina 
groves of the Madras coast. Of other Pohjpori 
the most noticeable perhaps is Polijporiis (Fonies) 
fomentarius, which is everywhere conspicuous in the 
North-west Himalaya especially on the ' ban ' oak 
(Qiiercus mcana) &nd the biich (Betula aJnoides) the 
sporophores consisting of a huge, hard, grey re- 
versed bracket. This fungus, which thrives both on 
living and on dead trees, perhaps more frequently on 
the latter, is also common in Europe, where up to 
quite recently, and indeed still to some extent, the 
dried sporophores are used for tinder. Many of ua 
can still remember the ' amadou ' matches which used 
to be sold in the cities of Europe for lighting cigars 
and which were made of the dried felt of the 
sporophores of this species. 
For many year?, the parties who have visited the 
DEODAE FORESTS OF JAUNSAE 
yearly for the instruction of the students 
of the Forest School, have been interested and 
puzzled by the groups of young dead deodar 
to be met with here and there, the cause of 
death being not at once apparent. Often have we 
dug up specimens, only to find what might have 
been expected, that the roots and the lower parts of 
the stems were fully permeated by the mycelium 
of some fungus, but what kind of jjlant 'it was 
and ivhat could be done to stop if ive. had no 
means of tellinq. Last autumn, however, (1898) 
spring searchings having invariably failed, I was in 
Jaunsar and took every opportunity of hunting for 
the sporophores and at last was successful in finding 
a rather poor specimen which was unmistakeably the 
cause of the death of a fine young deodar near the Jako 
pass. It was sent to Kew and proved to be Polimorus 
(Fomes) annosus. Fries, better known by the older 
name of Trametes radiciperda, Hartig, and described 
by Hartig as "undoubtedly the most dangerous of all the 
parasites met with in coniferous woods, not only because 
it produces the worst kind of red-rot, but also on 
account of its being the most common cause of o-aps 
in both young and old plantations." It is impossible 
to exaggerate the importance of this sad discovery. The 
Forest Department is very properly yearly spending 
oa : 13 reproduction of deodar large sums of money 
and so far the success has on the whole been con- 
■ 1 livable, better perhaps with natural than with arti- 
ficial reproduction but still good in both cases. 'In 
J aunsar and in the neighbouring leased forests of Tehri- 
Garhwal, the disease is, so far as my own observa- 
tion goes, on the increase, and it is now time to take 
strong measures to stop it before it goes too far 
It is propagated, as is well known and as is described 
by all the writers on the subject, Hartig, Marshall 
Ward, Fisher, von Tubeuf, chiefly by the contact, 
in the soil, of the roots of adjoining trees and the 
remedy proposed, and for long adopted in Germany 
is to isolate affected trees or patches of trees by 
digging trenches around them sufficiently deep to 
prevent their roots passing beyond and commuDicating 
