THE BANANA. ] 435 



form of the same disease. As a preventive and partly 

 curative remedy against this disease in South Africa the 

 banana has been sprayed with Bordeaux mixture with 

 encouraging results. It is necessary however, to burn 

 and destroy the infected plants, and before replanting it 

 is advisable to trench deeply and to see that the soil is 

 well drained, and then to plant, cultivating the young 

 plantation with the utmost care in order to keep up the 

 plants in full vigour and perfect health. The wounds 

 caused by the removal of decayed stems may be cut 

 clean and allowed to dry for a few hours, and then 

 powdered over with flowers of sulphur containing 3 to 

 5% of sulphate of copper, or with charcoal dust mixed 

 with slacked lime and flowers of sulphur. 



Another disease is the anthracwsis of the banana, 

 known in Australia by the name of "black smut", and is 

 due to Gleosporium musarum Cke. and Massee. This 

 disease attacks the ripe or ripening fruit transforming 

 it into a soft black mass, but it always appears sporadi- 

 cally, and so far has not caused serious trouble. The 

 infected fruit should be burned, and the fruit room 

 should be disinfected before taking in fresh bunches from 

 the plantation. The disease is not known here, and 

 should not be confused with the blackening of the over 

 ripe fruit, which is a purely physiological process, 

 perhaps attended or promoted by the presence of sapro- 

 phytic fungi, but has nothing to do with black smut. 



A species of Fusarium has been noted on the 

 banana in the Hawai Islands, (Higgins, the Banana in 

 Hawai, 1904, page 31.). The fungus attacks the central 

 part or heart of the plant, discolouring or blackening the 

 young tissues, and proceeds from above downwards, 

 being probably carried from one plant to another through 

 the punctures caused by insects, but does not seem to 

 spread directly to the young suckers or to neighbouring 

 plants. The infected stems should be destroyed, as it is 



