VASCULAR DISEASES OF BANANA. 



173 



There are no external indications as to the cause of this disease, but when one makes a 

 section of the stem, particularly toward the base, the vascular bundles are found to be very 

 fully occupied by bacteria and stained first yellow, then a dark color (brownish- violet). 

 This bacterial occupation of the vessels may be traced out into the affected leaves, to a lesser 

 extent. A vascular bundle, here and there, may be occupied, but there is not conspicuous 

 brown staining of the veins such as occurs in the black rot of the cabbage. 



It remains to be determined whether this Central American disease is the same as that 

 seen by Earle in Jamaica and whether it is really due to bacteria. I believe not.* In recent 

 years several persons, including Dr. McKenney, have searched for this disease in Jamaica 

 in the locality indicated by Earle without finding it, which only means, however, that the 

 growers took Earle's advice seriously, and grubbed out the diseased plants very thor- 

 oughly. The writer is inclined to ascribe the Panama disease to his Fusarium cubense. In 

 1913 the disease was reported by Ashby from Jamaica, identification being made first in 

 19 1 2 by Mr. Goldsmith Williams, an agent of the Fruit Company. 



The Cavendish or Chinese banana and the Congo are resistant to this disease. 



SOUTH AMERICAN DISEASES. 



Rorer has shown that the so-called " Panama disease, " both in Trinidad and in Surinam, 

 is associated with a Fusarium in the vascular bundles, and this corresponds to the writer's 

 observations on the Cuban disease. 



The most recent and longest paper is by Drost, but he does not cite earlier literature. 

 It is possible, of course, that the Fusarium found also by Drost in the diseased bundles of 

 the banana is the conidial stage of the Leptospora also found by him, but the evidence of this 

 is very inconclusive. Essed's papers seem to me negligible. 



OLD WORLD DISEASES. 



Basu has seen a banana disease in Bengal which resembles the Surinam disease and 

 associated with which he has seen a fungus bearing Cephalosporium and Fusarium conidia. 



LITERATURE. 



1903- 



1910. 



iyio. 



1910. 



1910 



191 1 . 



Earle. F. S. Banana leaf-blight, in "Report 

 on a trip to Jamaica." Jour. N. Y. Bot. 

 Garden, vol. iv, Jan. 1903, pp. 7-8. 



Rorer, James Birch. A bacterial disease of 

 bananas and plantains. Society paper No. 

 412 in Proc. Agric. Society of Trinidad and 

 Tobago, vol. x, part 4, April 1910, pp. 109-1 13. 



Rorer, James Birch. Diseases of bananas. 

 Bull. Dept. Agric, Trinidad, Port of Spain, 

 vol. ix, No. 65, July 1910, p. 157. Separate. 



Smith, Erwin F. A Cuban banana disease. 

 Science, n. s., vol. xxxi, No. 802, May 13, 

 1910, pp. 754-755. Also a separate. 



Organism called Fusarium cubense. 



McKennv. R. E. B. The Central American 



banana blight. Science, n. s., vol. xxxi, No. 



802, May 13, 1910, pp. 750-751. Separate. 

 Rorer, James Birch. A bacterial disease of 



bananas and plantains. Phytopathology, vol. 



1, April 17, 191 1, 4 pis., pp. 45-49- 



191 1. Basu, S. K. Report on the banana disease of 

 Chinsurah. Quart. Journ. Dept. Agric, Ben- 

 gal, vol. iv, No. 4, April 191 1, pp. 196-198. 



191 1. Essed, E. The Panama disease of bananas. 



Annals of Botany, vol. xxv, pp. 343-361. 

 London and Oxford, April 191 1. 



The disease both in Panama and in Surinam is said to be due 

 to a new species of fungus. Ustilaginoidella musa-perda. 



1912. Drost, A. W. De Surinaamsche Panamaziekt. 



in de Gros Michel bacoven. Bull. No. 26, 

 Paramaribo, Maart, 1912, pp. 45, with 11 

 plates. 



Disease ascribed to Leptospora muscc. " Besides perithecia it 

 produces spores of a Cephalosporium and of a Fusarium type. " 



1912. PittiER, H. La Enfermedad del Banano y su 



Causa. La Hacienda, Agosto 191 2, pp. 343- 

 346, 3 figs. 



1913. Ashbv, S. F. Banana Diseases in Jamaica. 



Bull. Dep. Agric. Jamaica, N. S., vol. 2, No. 

 6, January 1913, pp. 95-109. 



Fusarium is present in the bundles. 



* Since this was in type, Mr. James B. Rorer visited Central America for the United Fruit Company and wrote 

 me as follows under date of March 16, 1914: " We had a very pleasant trip to Bocas del Toro and I was able to get a 

 good deal of work done. * * * I made many cultures from diseased bananas Gros Michael and got Fusarium 

 every time from the Panama disease. I did not see the bacterial disease there at all even in the susceptible varieties." 



