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coconut palms were said to be dying in large numbers of some 

 mysterious disease which should be investigated. Mr. Busck was 

 sent by the U. S. Department of Agriculture to eastern Cuba, and 

 subsequently reported on the entomological aspects of the disease. 

 Later Mr. F. S. Earle reported the occurrence of a bacterial bud 

 rot of the coconut in Jamaica. (^) The writer has since heard of 

 its occurrence on the mainland in Central America, so that it may 

 be assumed to occur all round the Caribbean. It was studied by 

 the writer at Baracoa, Mata and Yumuri in eastern Cuba in April, 

 1904. 



The disease has made decided advances since it was studied by 

 Mr. Busck in 1901, especially at Mata, and if it continues to spread 

 as it has done during the past ten years it will inevitably destroy 

 the coconut industry of the island, and that, too, within the next 

 ten or fifteen years. Already many of the planters are discour- 

 aged and not setting any more trees, since it now attacks trees of 

 all ages, including quite young ones and those on the hills as 

 well as those close to the sea. The disease is frequently known 

 as ' the fever,' and often one sees where the bases of the trunks 

 have been scorched with an idea of preventing the development 

 of the disease. The disease is not lodged in the roots, however, 

 nor in the stem. These in all cases appear to be sound. 

 The general symptoms are the yellowing and fall of the outer 

 leaves, the shedding of the nuts, and some months later the death 

 of the whole crown. The cause of this decline is not apparent until 

 the tree is felled and the crown of leaves removed, including the 

 wrappings of the strong terminal bud. The latter is then found to 

 be the seat of the disease. This bud with its wrappings of young 

 and tender leaves is found to be involved in the vilest sort of a 

 bacterial soft rot — not unlike that of a decaying cabbage or potato, 

 but smelling much worse, the stench resembling that of a 

 slaughter-house. This rot, invisible until the numerous outer leaf- 

 base wrappings are removed, often involves a diameter of several 

 inches of soft tissues and a length of three or four feet, including 

 flower buds and the whole of some of the soft fleshy white unde- 

 veloped leaves covering the bud and forming the so-called ' cab- 

 bage' of the palm. The rot stops very promptly with the harder 

 tissues of the palm stem immediately under the bud and does not 

 attack any of the developed leaves. It is a disease of the unde- 

 veloped tissues. When the tree is felled and opened up, carrion 

 flies and vultures are promptly attracted by the horrible smell. 

 Fly larv^ and various fungi were found in the parts most exposed 

 to the air and longest diseased, but the advancing margin of the 

 decay was occupied only by bacteria, of which there appeared to 

 be several sorts. No yellow or green fluorescent bacteria were 

 obtained from the rotting tissues. All were white organisms of 

 the * soft-rot' type, mostly plump short rods with rounded ends, 



(3) See Bulletin of the Department of Jgriculture, Jamaica, Feb., 1903, page 31. 



