239 



Trinidad" considers that 90 % of the loss of fruits by 

 parasitic fungi is due to Lasiodiplodia. The disease caused 

 by Lasiodiplodia is called „brown-rot" and his description 

 agrées completely with Howard's description of the dis- 

 ease caused by Diplodia. As we shall show further, 

 this Lasiodiplodia must be the same fungus as tho Diplo- 

 dia of the other West Indian islands and the Chaelodi- 

 plodia of Surinam. 



Stockdale ') mentions a Lasiodiplodia which lias as 

 yet been incompletely investigated. 



Zehntner'') found that in Java a Diplodia causes the 

 dying back of cacao trees and also attacked the pods. 

 Finally, according to Petch=*), in Ceylon a Diplodia oc- 

 curs only very rarely on the fruits, and only very few 

 cases are known of the dying back of trees trough this 

 fungus. 



Microscopical investigation. 



Microscopical examination shows that a fungus occurs 

 in the diseased portions; the hyphae are seen in the colis 

 of the varions tissues of the bark and wood; where they 

 traverse a cell wall they pass through the pits. The my- 

 célium is septate and originally colourless, but when old, 

 it becomes black. The dark colour of wood which bas 

 been killed, is also due to the numerous black hyphae 

 traversing it. In the pods the mycélium is found in the 

 pericarp, in the pulp and in the seeds. 



The fungus was obtained in pure culture by excising a 



1) F. A. Stockdale. West Indian Bulletin. Vol. IX, p. 177, l'JOO. 



2) L. Zelmtner. Korte mededeelingen van liet Proefstatiou 

 voor cacao. II, p. 1, 1904. 



3) T. Petcli. The tropical agricultiirist. Supplément, Aiigust 

 1907, p. 5. 



