PREFACE. 



During the past year the author of the following pages 

 has been engaged, by kind permission of the Director of 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, in mycological work at the 

 Jodrell Laboratory. This work, carried out under the 

 guidance and advice of Mr. George Massee, V.M.H., Chief 

 Assistant at the Royal Herbarium and Plant Pathologist 

 to the Board of Agriculture, has included a study of a 

 considerable mass of material sent to Kew from various 

 tropical colonies, and has led the author to make for his 

 own use a general survey of the principal West Indian 

 fungus diseases of plants, and also of other tropical fungus 

 diseases. The following pages are published with the hope 

 that they may prove useful as a summary to workers in 

 tropical agricultural departments, and that there may be 

 set before the planters in the West Indies an account of the 

 pathological effects caused by their fungus pests and an 

 indication of the methods of treatment which have been 

 recommended from time to time. 



It has been thought fit to include along with the diseases 

 which have been reported to occur in the West Indies the 

 more important diseases of the same crops when they 

 are cultivated in other parts of the world. 



The introduction contains some general remarks on 

 parasitic fungi, a brief discussion of the methods of treat- 

 ment most commonly in use for fungus diseases and an 

 indication of the more important problems which are 

 connected with the study of plant pathology in the West 

 Indies at the present time. 



A diagnosis of each parasitic fungus has been given 

 wherever it was possible to do so, and, in the more 

 important diseases, the methods of treatment which have 

 been actually recommended, or which would appear likely 

 to prove effective, have been included. 



