150 HISTORY AND CAUSE OF THE COCONUT BUD-EOT. 



mass as the result of any disease is untrue. The terminal bud will 

 become a soft putrid mass only in the case of bud-rot. The writer 

 of this discussion has studied closely, by actually ascending the 

 trees and by pushing apart the central leaves, the condition of the 

 bud tissues in many trees and has followed out the changes in indi- 

 vidual trees during a period of two years. Some trees were naturally 

 diseased vnih bud-rot, some by insects, and some were artifically 

 inoculated by making holes 45 centimeters long into the heart 

 tissues and then injecting the organisms. It is possible for the 

 wiiter to state definitely that miscellaneous diseases or injuries to 

 the tree mil not cause a soft, putrid condition of the bud. It is 

 moreover possible to state that, so far as the writer's experiments 

 hav^e gone, only a specific kind of bacteria will produce this soft rot. 

 That Mr. Stockdale found such a condition as he describes in the 

 trees he examined is not questioned. The correctness of his con- 

 clusion as to the cause of the condition is, however, much in question. 

 Soft rots may occur in the crowns of trees affected with various 

 maladies, but it is probable from the wTiter's experiments that the 

 apparent cause of the diseased condition of the tree has been only 

 an accompaniment of the real cause. It is the writer's behef that 

 in those cases of root-rot which had rotting crovms the trouble in 

 the crown was distinct from that in the roots and not to be considered 

 a part of it, i. e., the root disease (whatever its cause) and the bud- 

 rot were two independent diseases in the same tree. 



Dr. Fredholm has also made investigations of the coconut-palm 

 diseases of Trinidad (p. 26). He described a serious disease in 

 which the trunk was normal and the roots usually so, wdiile the 

 terminal bud became disintegrated into a sour-smelhng, whitish, 

 semifluid mass, which when examined under the miscroscope was 

 seen to be swarming with bacteria. The adjacent tissues out to the 

 petiole bases were traversed by fungous mycelium which Dr. Fred- 

 holm believed to be the forerunner of the bacterial rot. He states 

 that he considers Stockdale's root disease and the foregoing disease 

 distinct, chiefly for the reason that he has never found the decay of 

 the roots and the discolored stem present in the affected trees which 

 he examined. To substantiate the claim of the fungous nature of 

 the disease, Dr. Fredholm made fungous inoculations which resulted 

 in small, diseased spots on the leaves (p. 26). These inoculations 

 however, were by no means sufficient to prove the fungous nature 

 of the disease. In order so to afi'ect the tree as to produce a bacterial 

 soft rot in the bud it would actually be necessary to destro}- the 

 greater part of the leaves. Dr. Fredholm admits that the soft rot 

 is caused by bacteria, and his claim is that the fungus produces 

 conditions in the tree suitable for bacterial infection. He has ad- 



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