74 



FUNGUS DISEASES. 



On the whole the cane plantations of the Archipelago seem to be 

 remarkably free from attacks of fungus parasites. The red rot caused 

 by CoUetotrichum falcatum has been reported in the Philippines, yet, 

 according to the botanist of the Bureau of Science, no specimens of this 

 particular fungus have ever been secured for that Bureau's collections 

 and it is doubtful whether it actually exists here. 



Bacteria and possibly several saprophytic fimgi enter wounds made by 

 rats, pigs, root-borers, stem-borers, and even through the punctures made 

 by the wooly aphis and the cane flies; but such fungi are, of course, 

 only secondary parasites and could not exist without the primaries. 



A kind of blight was discovered last season in Occidental Negros which 

 has been reported as probably a new species, and cane leaves apparently 

 attacked by the eye-spot disease (Cercospora sacchari) have been noted 

 by Mr. Elmer D. Merrill, botanist of the Bureau of Science; but this 

 disease which causes severe damages in other countries is of very little 

 importance here. 



