THE BUD-ROT OF PALMS IN INDIA. 



E. J. Butler, m.b., f.l.s., 



Imperial Mycolotjist. 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTANICAL 



I. — Introduction. qarden. 



A group of palm diseases, the chief symptom of which is a rot 

 in the soft tissues of the interior of the crown, has attracted much 

 attention in tropical countries in recent years. The ''Kew Bul- 

 letin" for 1893' quotes a description of a coconut disease observed 

 in Jamaica in 1891', and states that it appears to be allied to. an 

 obscure disease known as coconut ''fever" in Honduras and to a 

 disease observed in British Guiana in 1875-6. A similar disease 

 destroyed many coconut groves in Cuba in 1886, and a report on 

 it was published at Havana in 1888. After the occupation of that 

 island by the United States, coconut palms were found to be dying 

 in large numbers from a mysterious disease. In 1901, Mr. A. Busck 

 of the Division of Entomology of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture reported that it was probably caused by the fungus 

 Pestalozzia palmarum, a common palm-leaf parasite, but that bacte- 

 ria seemed to play some part.' Professor F. S. Earle saw the 

 disease in Jamaica in 1902 and believed it to be of bacterial origin.' 

 The same view was taken in 1905 by Dr. Erwin F. Smith of the 

 United States Department as regards the Cuba disease.' It was 

 next observed in Trinidad by Mr. Hart in 1905, and attention again 



i W. F. H. Blanford. Palm weevil in British Honduras, Kew Bulletin, 1893, p. 42 



2 W. Fawcett. Report on the Coconut disease at Montego Bay. Bulletin of the 

 Botanical Department, Jamaica, No. 23, 1891, p. 2. 



3 A. Busck. Report of an investigation of diseased Coconut palms in Cuba. V s 

 Dept. of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, Bull. No. 38, N. S., 1!)02. 



* F. S. Earle. Report on a trip to Jamaica. Journal of New York Botanical tJardeii 

 Jan. 1903. 



6 Erwin F. Smith. Bud-rot of the Coconut palm in the West Indies. Science NS 

 Vol. XXI, 190"), p. 500. ' ' ■' ■' 



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