14 
Mycologia 
tioned. It is a heavy, soggy fungus, drying hard and horny. 
Dr. Murrill identifies this form as Spongipellis fissilis. 
We have thus several types of the second form of fungus caus- 
ing a heart-rot of the apple trees. Just what is their identity 
cannot be determined with certainty at present. Dr. Murrill, who 
has seen some of our specimens from the vicinity of New York 
City, identifies them as Spongipellis galactinus. There is a speci- 
men at the New York Botanical Garden bearing this name col- 
lected by F. C. Stewart from a living apple tree. His field notes 
state : “ Pure white, inside a hollow apple tree. Redding, Conn., 
1907.” Murrill mentions this peculiarity in a note (Bull. Torrey 
Club 32 : 476, 1905). He says: “One of its favorite hosts is the 
apple tree, on which it has several times been found in New York 
and Connecticut, growing inside partially decayed trunks or emerg- 
ing from knot-holes in living trees. When fresh, it is pure-white 
or watery-white and so full of water that this may be squeezed 
out as from a sponge.” 
This is a very interesting series of forms connected with the 
destruction of orchards of the region. None of them has been 
hitherto regarded as particularly damaging to the apple tree, but 
there can be no question, in my opinion, that they are quite limited 
to the apple tree. Mr. Lloyd reports twenty collections of this 
second series of types, most of them from apple trees of the New 
England States. A few are from chestnut. He calls them Poly- 
porns spumeus var. malicolus. Lloyd evidently recognized this 
form as particularly limited to the apple and mentions that they 
are the cause of heart-rot of apple trees of New England. 
Whether his identification of these forms is correct, is a question 
that can be determined only by further study of the group, which 
should, of course, include inoculation experiments. 
Columbia University, 
New York City. 
