243 



they are imited to groups in a stroma in Lcmodiplodia. 



On infecting fruits with spores of such pycnidia, solitary 

 pycnidia are again formed in the fruii, a proof that we 

 are once more dealing with only one fungus. Tlie loose 

 groups of cells, which lie between the pycnidia in Fig. 11, 

 show moreover that there are transitions between solitary 

 pycnidia and pycnidia arranged in groups. The fungus 

 observed by Barrett, which causes in Trinidad the 

 „brown-rot" of the cacoa pods and of which material, 

 when sent to the Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, was determined as LasiodiploiUa, 

 is doubtless identical with the Diplodia occurring in other 

 West Indian islands and in Surinam. 



Howard ') also observes that the fructifications generally 

 form colonies in the trunk and branches, and suggests, 

 that the Botryodiplodia, found by Patou illard in disea- 

 sed cacoa fruits in Ecuador, which possibly causes one 

 of the forms of Mancha ^), might be the same fungus as 

 the Diplodia studied by him. 



However this may be, in any case it results from the 

 observations described, that the characters, which differen- 

 tiate the gênera Dipilodia, ChaetodijJlodia and Lasiodiplodia 

 are not constant, so that the three gênera should not be 

 separated systematically but should be united in one 

 genus Diplodia. Thus the gênera Chaetodiptodia and Lasio- 

 diplodia disappear, and perhaps further investigation will 

 show that the character by which Botryodiplodia is dis- 

 tinguished (absence of paraphyses) is governed by external 

 conditions. 



1) A. H o w a r d. Annals of Botany Vol. XV, p. 690. 



2) Lecomte et C halo t. Le Cacaoyer et sa culture p. 64, J 902. 



