WHITE-PINE BLISTER RUST IN WESTERN EUROPE. Te 
largest specimen of western white pine in the British Isles. It, too, 
is being killed by blister rust. In young plantations of western 
white pine at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, the blister rust is gradu- 
ally working with telling effect. Neger reports this species as being 
attacked by the rust in Germany (30, p. 280). 
The California sugar pine was found diseased in Scotland, France, 
and Belgium, and is reported from Germany.’® A most striking 
example of damage done to a single tree was observed at Murthly, 
Scotland. An arboretum specimen, 20 years old, with a height of 
20 feet, is so heavily attacked on every limb to a height of 8 feet 
from the ground and so severely constricted on the stem that 1t is 
practically worthless. The late Sir Edmund Loder, of Horsham, 
Sussex, England, stated in correspondence that young sugar pines 
on his estate were attacked and killed by the rust. The appearance 
of infected trees in Belgium and France indicates that this species 
is highly susceptible. 
The limber pine was seen diseased in Norway, Sweden, and France, 
and Tubeuf states that it is infected in Germany (42). One of the 
most interesting cases of damage to the limber pine by the blister 
rust was seen at Softeland, near Bergen, Norway. In a plantation 
of {-year-old trees numbering 300, each tree was diseased and one- 
third of the number killed. The infection may be directly attributed 
to black-currant bushes growing in a garden 650 feet distant. At 
the Alnarp Forest nursery in Sweden 100 seedlings 6 years old 
were destroyed in 1920 because they were found to be diseased. A 
few younger seedlings remaining in the nursery (fig. 13) had de- 
veloped the disease in only two cases. In the National Arboretum 
at Nogent sur Vernisson, France, 12-year-old trees of this species 
have been killed by the disease (fig. 14). 
The Mexican white pine is heavily infected, the disease being 
found on this species in Belgium and England. Extensive planta- 
tions of these trees do not exist abroad, since they have been planted 
chiefly for ornamental purposes. The severity with which the 
fungus has attacked them and its rate of development clearly demon- 
strate that they are readily susceptible. 
These facts are of special significance to the United States and 
sound a clear call to action. The recent discovery of white-pine 
blister rust in British Columbia and Washington and the wide- 
spread abundance of wild currants and gooseberries in the Pacific 
coast and Rocky Mountain regions (there being about 60 species) 
place the valuable western five- “needle pines in an extremely hazard- 
ous position. Furthermore, climatic conditions of the West appear 
to be favorable to the spread and development of the fungus. 
There is a striking resemblance between the climate of western Nor- 
way, where the disease worked destructively in white pine and limber 
pine, and the northwest coast of the United States. Observations 
in Norway on the growth of the Douglas fir and Sitka spruce show 
that these indigenous species grow admirably in that region, thus 
giving evidence of the similarity of the climate of the west coast 
of Norway and of America. They give such promise of excellent 
volume production that in the future these trees will undoubtedly 
play an important role in the forestry practice of that country. 
18 Correspondence with Professor von Tubeuf, 1920, 
