PANDANUS DISEASE 293 



of inserting a germ-tube into the unbroken surface of the 

 bark, but gain an entrance through wounds. A knife used 

 for cutting out a diseased portion was afterwards used for 

 making a shght incision in the branch of a healthy plant, 

 and the disease followed. 



Preventive Means. — All wounded surfaces should be 

 coated with tar at once, and care should be exercised in 

 pruning or trimming not to cut sound branches with a 

 knife that has been used for cutting out diseased parts, 

 until it is disinfected. 



Massee, Gard. Mag., July 23, 1898, fig. 



PANDANUS DISEASE 



{Melaficoniimi pandani, Lev.) 



The surface of the trunk, aerial roots, and adventitious 

 branches of cultivated species of Screwpine (^Fa7ida7ius) 

 are sometimes attacked by a fungus which forms small 

 black pustules, bursting through the epidermis, and at 

 maturity extruding black, subgelatinous tendrils, consisting 

 of minute conidia held together by a mucilaginous sub- 

 stance. These pustules are often produced in immense 

 numbers, and blacken the parts attacked. 



An ascigerous form — Nectria pandani, Tul. — frequently 

 appears on the Melanconiwn pustules, and the two are 

 considered as phases of one fungus, but this has not yet 

 been proved. 



Preventive Means. — If the diseased parts are cut out, 

 and the wounds covered with a fungicide as soon as the 

 disease is observed, it may be arrested ; if neglected, the 

 plant invariably dies. 



