vii MULBERRY OTHER DISEASES 247 



wood, and still live. The sporophores are at first pale- 

 yellow, soft, watery rounded knobs about one inch in 

 diameter, but grow into large hemispherical bodies 

 which are sometimes six inches across. The upper 

 surface is convex and the lower almost flat. The upper 

 surface is a chestnut colour and covered with soft hairs. 

 The lower surface is filled with long yellowish-brown 

 tubes, which exude water while forming, even in dry 

 weather. The sporophore remains soft until quite old, 

 and then becomes hard, black, shrunken, and cracked. 

 However, the inner part retains its deep -yellow or 

 chestnut-brown colour. The diseased parts should be 

 cut and burned. 



OTHER DISEASES 



Spike Disease. This is a disease of the sandal wood 

 which has been reported from Coorg, Mysore, and other 

 places in the East. It may attack all or only a part of 

 a tree, causing a peculiar deformity. The leaves become 

 narrow, pointed, and stiff, and very much crowded 

 together, and the internodes much shorter than in the 

 normal plants. As each successive growth is produced 

 the above characters become more and more intensified, 

 until eventually the new shoots have the appearance of 

 spikes with bristles. This excessive growth continues 

 the year round without cessation. All studies up to 

 the present time have failed to demonstrate the presence 

 of any specific organic parasite which will account for 

 this unsightly and destructive disease. The failure to 

 discover any organism which will account for the 

 disease has led some investigators to consider it a 

 physiological disease, due to an " intensified carbon 

 assimilation." The only satisfactory treatment which 

 can be recommended at this time is to cut and burn the 

 diseased trees. 



Bastard Woods. Trees which differ from others of 

 their kind, and for which there have been numerous un- 

 satisfactory explanations, have been found in various 



