86 
Mycologia 
On account of these various reports and inquiries concerning 
the disease, the writer has recently taken up its study in detail, 
one of the principal objects being to determine whether, as Clinton 
suggests may be the case, it is a trouble following winter or 
drought injury, or whether it is caused by a parasitic fungus, 
Connecticut plantations at East Haven, Mt. Carmel, and West 
Hartford have already been visited, and the disease, with all the 
symptoms as described above, has been found to be present at 
these places. Moreover, in all the plantations, blanks like the one 
described and figured here have been found, and these are being 
steadily enlarged by the death of trees around their borders. 
In 1911, a fungus was isolated from the bark of the dying 
trees which was believed to be a species of Fusicoccum. The 
work was not followed up, however, and no inoculations with 
the pure cultures were made. In our recent work, nine fungi 
have been isolated from the bark of dying trees and several more 
from the bark of dead trees. Nevertheless, of these nine, the 
same species of Fusicoccum found earlier is of the most general 
occurrence. The bark of many trees is infested by this species 
alone, and it is also of importance to note that its fruiting bodies 
may be found in close proximity to the boundary between healthy 
and diseased bark. The plurilocular pycnidia, borne in a stroma, 
contain vast numbers of hyaline, cylindrical spores, usually with 
one end acute and the other blunt, and averaging 12 X 2^.. 
The disease resembles the “ Einschniirungskrankheit ” of the 
fir, described by Hartig 2 as killing branches of the host, and caused 
by Phoma abietina Hartig, which later became known as Fusi- 
coccum abietinmn (Hartig) Prill, and Delacr. 3 The spores of 
this, however, seem to differ in shape somewhat from those of 
our form. 
Pure cultures have been made of all the fungi found on the 
dying trees, and inoculations with these species on healthy trees 
in the greenhouse are now in progress. The results of these, 
together with a more detailed account of the disease, will be pub- 
lished later. 
2 Hartig, Robert. Lehrbuch der Baumkrankheiten, ed. 2. p. 124. 1889. 
s Prillieux, E., and Delacroix, G. Travaux du Laboratoire de Pathologie 
vegetale, Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr. 6: 176. 1890. 
