PARASITISM OF THE SANDALWOOD 
(Fusanus spicatus, R.B.). 
By D. A. Herbert, M.Sc., Economic Botanist and Pathologist, 
Analytical Department, Perth, and 
C. A. Gardner, Forestry Department, Perth. 
( Bead November 9th, 1920.) 
The Western Australian Sandalwood ( Fun anus spicatus, 11. 
Br.) is a low tree of about 20 feet, found throughout the drier areas 
of the State. It was once abundant,, but now lias been cut out 
for the greater part along the railway lines, and the larger trees 
are found only far back in the virgin bush. There is, a big 
market for the wood in Asia, and in addition a certain amount 
of sandalwood is used for the distillation of the oil. For all 
practical purposes the Western Australian tree is an excellent 
substitute for the Indian tree, the wood of which was originally 
used. The Indian species is a tall tree known as Saul alum album , 
and is well known to be parasitic. Kama- Kao has found it in 
India parasitic on over one hundred different species of host plants. 
In this it rather resembles the Christmas tree of Western Aus- 
tralia, whose parasitism is not limited to one particular plant as 
is often the case with mistletoes and with fungal parasites. Other 
plants belonging to the Sandalwood family are well known to be 
parasites, and it was therefore to he expected that the Western 
Australian species, which is fairly closely related to the Indian 
tree, should also share this property. Its habit of growing close 
to another tree suggests this and it was not surprising to hnd 
that in such cases it was drawing on the other tree for nour- 
ishment. The favourite host, plant seems to be the jam (Acacia 
acuminata), probably because it is the most common tree in dis- 
tricts examined. Numerous Myrtaeeae, Leguminosae and other 
plants are also attacked. The sandalwood sends out branching 
roots, from which arise slender rootlets. These on coming into 
contact -with the root of a jam tree form at the point of junction 
a club-shaped haustorium or sucker. This is different from the 
Christmas tree haustoriogen, which produces a ring of tissue round 
a host root with suckers on the inside of the ring. 
The sandalwood roots rot easily in the ground, and it is not un- 
common to find scars on the jam roots where a sucker has died, 
leaving its mark on the surviving jam roots. 
