182 The Philippine Journal of Science 1919 
spection of these provinces with a view to eradicating the bac- 
terial disease known as ‘bud-rot of the coconut.” On this trip 
Byars found the disease to be most prevalent around the base 
of Mount Banahao in the municipalities of Nagcarlan, Lilio, 
and San Pablo. It was reported that more than two thousand 
trees had been destroyed in one of the barrios of Nagcarlan. 
In March, 1911, Roxas(11) in a report on the cultivation of 
coconut mentions the bud rot as being probably due to bacteria. 
Cevallos,(4) in 1911, discussed control measures for the bud rot 
that had been observed some years ago. In 1912 Barrett(1) 
wrote of the infection as being by far the most serious of all 
the fungus or bacterial diseases that trouble the coconut planter. 
In 1916 the first extensive means for combating the bud rot 
were inaugurated by the Bureau of Agriculture under the di- 
rection of Mackie.(8) The work “was designed to furnish in- 
formation as to the spread and the prevalence of disease and, 
if possible, to ascertain the pathogenic agent, and the means 
of distribution.” The inspections were confined largely to the 
coconut belt in central Luzon, in Laguna and Tayabas Provinces. 
New ordinances were passed, and the Bureau of Agriculture 
was charged with inspection and destruction of infected trees. 
Little was learned, however, concerning the cause and manner 
of its spread. A bacterium was reported to have been isolated 
from affected trees, and from palm weevils that attack the trees, 
and an attempt was made to prove that the insects carried the or- 
ganism and spread the disease. No inoculation studies were 
performed. Wester, (12) in a paper on coconuts, cited Reinking, 
of the College of Agriculture, as having isolated a bacterium 
which produced disease when inoculated into healthy trees. The 
latter, in a report on Philippine economic-plant diseases, (9) 
under the discussion of bud rot, stated that a diseased condition 
could be produced by a specific bacterium. 
From this resumé of the literature in the Philippine Islands 
it may be seen that very little work has been reported on the 
causal organism, and that the general opinion has been that a 
bacterium was the cause of the disease. 
Johnston,(7) after an extensive piece of work on coconut bud 
rot, arrived at the conclusion that the disease in the West Indies 
was caused by a bacterium similar in most respects to Bacillus 
coli (Escherich) Migula. Butler(2) has presented evidence to 
prove that the disease on palms in India was produced by Pythium 
palmivorum Butler. In other sections of the world various 
fungi have been associated with the disease. 
For the past two years the writer has made a study of the 
