CACAO DISEASE 133 



soft and of a claret colour and full of moisture. At a 

 later stage minute white pustules appear, especially in 

 cracks ; these eventually become pink. During the white 

 stage very minute oval conidia are produced in immense 

 numbers, and later on larger, crescent-shaped conidia 

 appear. Finally, when the cortex is dead, or nearly so, 

 a third ascigerous form of fruit develops ; the sporangia 

 being globose, crimson, and grouped in clusters. 



The disease often spreads rapidly ; in one instance a 

 diseased patch more than two feet long, and reaching 

 almost round the tree, had formed ten days after 

 inoculation. 



Preventive Means. — The most satisfactory method 

 is to cut out the diseased patch, along with a margin of 

 apparently sound cortex. Covering the wound with tar 

 is not recommended. 



Carruthers, The Tropical Agriculturalist, Nov. i, 1898, 

 P- 359- 



MUSHROOM DISEASE 



(Hypoifiyces, sp. ) 



Cultivated mushrooms are frequently attacked by fungous 

 parasites before they burst through the soil, and on appearing 

 at the surface are completely covered with a more or less 

 dense white felt of mould ; in other instances the mould 

 becomes tinted pale rose-colour; such mushrooms rarely 

 increase in size, and never develop properly, but deliquesce 

 and disappear. Sometimes the young mushrooms are 

 only slightly diseased, and in such cases the young gills 

 are not straight as is usual in healthy specimens, but more 



