COLOCASI-E BLIGHT 

 CAUSED BY PHYTOPHTHORA COLOCASIJl RAC. 



BY 



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

 Imperial Jfy color/ ist, 



AND 



G. S. KULKARNI, L.Ag., 

 Mycohgical Assistant, Bombay Department of Agriculture. 



I. Description of the Disease. 



Phytophthora Colocasice Rac. was first described by Raciborski 1 

 in 1900. In Java, according to this author, it is widely distributed 

 as a parasite on the leaves of Golocasia esculenta ( = G. antiquorum 

 Schott.) but does not cause much damage to the plant. His des- 

 cription is brief and practically confined to the naked eye appear- 

 ance of the infected leaf and the sporangial stage of the fungus. 

 It was not, apparently, obtained elsewhere than on the leaves of 

 the host and was not cultivated. 



The parasite does not appear to have been reported outside 

 Java until 1907, when it was recorded from India, in collections 

 made in 1905'. More recently Sawada has encountered it in For- 

 mosa 3 ; his description is in Japanese but illustrated by two plates, 

 these being, so far as we know, the only published figures of the 

 fungus. Sawada, on what appear to us to be entirely insufficient 



1 Raciborski, M. Parasitisohe Algen un<l Pilze Javas, T, lOOp^ p. 9. 



- Sydow, H. & P., and Butler, E. J. Fungi India Orientalis, II. Ann. Mycol. V. 1007, 

 p. 512. 



3 Sawada, K. Infection of Taro. Rep. from Special Reports of the Formosan Agrie. Exper. 

 Station, II, 1011 (Japanese). We are indebted to Mr. S. KamisaUa of Bombay for a trans- 

 lation of this paper. 



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