BLEMISHES IX SASSAFRAS AXD SWEET GUM. 
79 
and are walled by soft wood. The stains are heavy and may pene- 
trate one or two layers of wood beneath and five to ten or more layers 
over the wounds. These defects are exceedingly objectionable and 
unfit the wood for its limited use in carpentry. 
Sassafras (Sassafras varufolium). — The specimen examined is from 
a tree one side of which had been killed by sapsucker pecking and 
is now partly covered by new growth. As the wounds themselves 
have not healed, their appearance where buried by succeeding layers 
of wood is unusual. Along the plane of separation of the new 
and dead wood 
are long series of 
partly filled 
blackened pecks, 
with stain all 
along the line (PI. 
XI, fig. 5). The 
wood covering 
the pecks is 
gnarled and full 
of stained cracks 
and is worthless 
for any construc- 
tive purpose. 
California 
LAUREL (Umbrf- 
hdaria califor- 
nica). — Defects 
resulting from 
sapsucker work 
are conspicuous 
black checks ac- 
companied by extensive lateral staining and much gnarly wood. 
They are highly objectionable in this valuable wood. 
Fig. 30.- 
•Effects of sapsucker work on wood of red bay (Persea borbonia). 
Stains, checks, and Ions fissures. 
THE SWEET GUM FAMILY ALTIXGIACE^) . 
The wood of the single native species of this family is injured by 
sapsuckeis. 
Sweet gum (Liquidaj/tbar styraciflua) . — In a specimen from Abbe- 
ville, La., transverse black stains three-eighths inch wide surround 
the healed punctures, from which brown stains penetrate the grain 
vertically half an inch each way. These blemishes are objectionable 
from an ornamental standpoint but not materially so otherwise. In 
a trunk from the Santee Club, South Carolina, besides stains winch 
