64 
them as to cause rotting of seed and lint. It also causes mal- 
formations and premature bursting and cracking which result 
in the spoiling of the lint through the entrance of other agents 
besides the anthracnose fungus. The fungus at work is Colleto- 
trichum gossypii, South. Its complete stage, Glomerella gossypii, 
Edg., is to be found only at times, for the conidial condition is 
much more common than the ascomycete. At the end of the 
cotton harvest in Uganda, it is compulsory for all growers to 
remove and burn all the plants, and in this way the ravages of 
this boll disease are kept within bounds. The old custom among 
native cotton growers of opening up new land for each sowing 
season is being departed from, and it is therefore to be expected 
that boll-anthracnose will increase in severity rather than 
decrease, especially when the annual burning is carelessly 
carried out. No data are available as to the resisting powers of 
the different strains of cotton in the country, but observations 
made would point to all as equally susceptible. 
Gloeosporium spp. on Bananas and Hevea. —Gloeosporium 
musarum, Cke. and Mass.,is te be found at times on ripe bananas. 
It causes black spots on the fruit which eventually lead to a 
complete rot. This fungus would be responsible no doubt for a 
much greater loss of native food-stuff than it has been hitherto, 
were it not for the fact that the native cuts and cooks his food 
bananas while they are still unripe and green. Gloeosporium 
albo-rubrum, Petch., occurs on green shoots of Hevea, and causes 
them to die back. It is in this way responsible for the entry 
inte the tree of Botryodiplodia theobromae, Pat., which attacks 
the older woody branches and often makes necessary severe 
amputation before its ravages can be stopped. C. alborubrum is 
frequently found in close association with Phyllosticta ramicola, 
Petch. 
Other species of Colletotrichum (Gloeosporium) occur on 
mangoes, guavas, pomegranates and species of Citrus, but they 
have not yet been investigated. 
C.—PHOMA SPP. ON COFFEE AND HEVEA. 
Phoma sp. in pure culture.—It has already been mentioned 
that Phoma sp. occurring, as it does, frequently on coffee stems 
was considered to be implicated in the production of dieback 
of coffee, and was grown in pure culture. The minute black 
pycnidia of this fungus extrude yellow-red “ tendrils’ of spores 
after from ten days to a few months in a damp chamber. The 
pycnospores germinate readily in coffee-leaf or prune-agar plates 
and slants at laboratory temperature. Aerial septate mycelium, 
at first white but becoming dark grey with age, appears in 
concentric ares stretching across the surface of the medium, an 
globular, thick walled conidia of a diameter of 12-5-17-5 p, 
when young, hyaline, and when mature, dark-brown or black, 
appear first. They are cut off terminally from the mycelium, 
