DISEASES AND THEIR CURE 105 



so that the water may run off easily, slanting cuts 

 are preferable. When the diseased portions have 

 been removed, the surface of the tissues should be 

 carefully burnt with a torch to dry them and 

 the wound dressed with tar. One expert recom- 

 mends for this operation hot tar, which will prevent 

 the attacks of beetles. " The latter were," says Mr. 

 Hamel Smith, " at first considered the cause of the 

 disease, but examination showed that they bored 

 into the stem only after the tree was dead." 



Leaf disease, also caused by the pestalozzia 

 palmarum, is found in several other plants, notably 

 tea and Para rubber plants. 



Coconut planters frequently observe leaves which 

 appear to be dropping and on which the tips of 

 those leaflets remote from the stem are greyish in 

 colour. This condition appears to spread gradually 

 to the leaflets nearer the stem, and when all the 

 leaflets of the terminal two or three feet have 

 become badly diseased, this portion breaks down, 

 and, if the whole leaf is borne in a position between 

 the horizontal and the vertical, the terminal 

 portion remains hanging downwards. When the 

 whole leaf occupies a position between the hori- 

 zontal and the trunk of the tree, the terminal 

 portion does not usually break off. Inspection of 

 the leaflets themselves reveals the fact that the tips 

 and many parts of the edges are dry and dead, and 

 that on other parts small yellowish spots, more or 



