. 

 29 



disease not having reached a climax in time to arrest their growth. 

 Inasmuch as the smallest specimens were those worst affected, it would 

 seem probable that the disease occurs on young fruit, and in that case 

 dwarfs it, or it may be, destroys its value altogether. This inference 

 is sustained by other observations. 



Fig. 48. Secondary stage of banana scab. The discolouration and the cracks now cover 

 most of one side of the fruit The later stages are shown in Figs. 49 and 50. 



The earliest stages, as they occur on fairly well grown, but still 

 green, bananas, such as would be cut for shipment, are as follows : 

 A reddish-brown colour appears on the green skin in the form of 

 minute transverse markings. These markings soon merge into a 

 uniform brown area, often of considerable extent, some parts of which 

 may become black. In the midst of this dark-coloured area numerous 

 shallow longitudinal cracks make their appearance. Following upon 

 the appearance of the cracks, the skin begins to dry up and take on a 

 greyish brown colour, the cracks meanwhile assuming larger dimen- 

 sions, though never becoming more than a millimetre wide, and seldom 

 more than half a millimetre wide, The cracks finally run together 

 more or less, so that the surface of the skin of the fruit reminds one 

 of the appearance of crackled glassware. (See Figs. 48 and 49.) 



In the early stages of the disease the inner layers of the skin or peel 

 appear to remain intact, but as soon as the crackling sets in the skin 

 begins io dry up and its inner layers to lose their green colour and succu- 

 lency, so that the skin decreases in thickness on the diseased area, and 

 so far fails to function that ultimately even the flesh of the fruit is 

 affected. When such bananas are " ripened " in storage, preparatory to 

 sale, the " ripe " fruit presents dry grey patches, from which the skin 

 cannot, perhaps, be readily removed. Under such patches the pulp 

 is often grey or brown, hard, dry, astringent and inedible. The flavour 

 of the rest of the banana is also inferior. (See Figs. 49 and 50.) 



It is unlikely that the reddish colouration noted in connection with 

 the early stages of the disease is a uniform and reliable characteristic, 

 for it will be remembered by all who are familiar with the behaviour 

 of this fruit in commerce, that such discolourations may be produced 

 by a variety of causes. The fact seems to be that as soon as the skin 



