4 
7§. ArceuthoMum.—We have received further particulars about this 
interesting discovery. Mrs. Millington writes, Nov. 23: ‘It 
seems curious that the plant I found should be so nearly the one I 
set out to find last April when I first saw the Nevada parasite. It 
occurred to me then that something of that kind might cause the 
unhealthy look and the .decay of the Black Spruce, so well-known 
among the Adirondacks. Almost the firs.t AbieVthat I had an op¬ 
portunity to examine were literally covered with that curious growth, 
then quite small and without fruit. Some botanist, who has an 
opportunity to examine the Abies bahamea , might possibly find it 
infested with the same parasite. Many trees present the same ap¬ 
pearance as the A. nigra when the parasite is present.” Again, in 
a letter dated Dec. 12th, she writes : “I received a very interesting 
letter from Dr. Engelmann, and, to secure some winter specimens 
that we might study its habits more at large, I went myself to War- 
rensburg. I got specimens from twenty different trees, large and 
small. Abou^ 75 per cent of all the Abieskwere infested. Groups 
of large trees forty feet high were dead, an^ bore the peculiar 
marks of the parasite. Nothing but the depth of-the snOw (twelve 
inches) prevented my looking farther among the A. balsam ex, where 
I expect to find, it yet. The location is on the east side of the plank 
road, two miles and a half from Warrensburg village, and half a 
prnile^soutJSff ' tEe t oll-Efixie. is in o wnas Dr. McNutt’s Marsh, 
and is about 60 rqds from the road.” 
“All the plants I send you are young ones : the question is, did 
they grow from this year’s seed ? You will, on examination, find 
tiny red points in the bark of this year’s wood, and observe that 
, the largest plants are in the older wood, and that none of them are 
' the plants of last summer’s growth.” 
^ 76. Note bom fir. Gray,—Mr. Peck of Albany sent me, early last 
^ autumn, a good specimen of a parasite qn Abies nigra , asking what 
k it was. I replied that it was the female of an Arceuthobium, most 
> likely A. campylopodum of Engelmann—to whom I advised he 
should send specimens ; that the discovery was an interesting and 
unexpected one. As Dr. Engelmann seems to have been supplied 
with much smaller and less developed specimens than I was, I ven¬ 
ture to suspect that he will yet conclude that it is his A. campylo¬ 
podum. 
The curious thing about the discovery is : 1st, that it should not 
have been detected before ; 2nd, that it should, after all this over¬ 
looking, be found during the same season by two persons, in three 
different counties, and so abundant as to disfigure or even to des¬ 
troy the trees it infests. 
I did not answer your communication at once, because I knew 
that the plant had already been brought to the knowledge of the 
Torrey Club, and because I sent it at once, with the specimen, to 
Dr. Engelmann, who has only now returned it. 
December 4th, 1871. A. G. 
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