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 659. -DISEASE IN IMMORTEL'S (Cacao shade). 



For sometime pasl complaints have been received of the dying 

 ■out of the Cacao shade in certain districts. The tree most affected is 

 Erythrina umbrosa or the " A.nauca" of planter-. 



Steps have l.een taken to investigate the cause of the attack, and 

 specimens have been carefully examined. It has been found that 

 microscopic fungi are particularly abundant, but whether these are of 

 a saprophytic or parasitic character lias yet to be seen. The trees 

 attacked, to all appearance are in ordinary health, when suddenly the 

 leaves wither and the bark commences to rot and drop off leaving a 

 bare and barkless stem, which gives off a powerful carrion like odour. 

 In the decayed wood and bark are numbers <>i wood boring Goleoptera 

 and also numbers of Diptera in the larval stage. 



A similar complaint has since come in from another district, 

 which also demands attention. As tar as the investigation has gone 

 the evidence appears to show, that this species of tree is unsuited to 

 the condition of soil and situation of the estate in question, but this 

 must be taken merely as a provisional opinion waiting on further 

 evidence. 



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