278 SPICES 



CHAP. 



blackened, and the blackening extends to the stem. 

 The fungus spreads rapidly through the tissues, most 

 rapidly through the vessels, causing the appearance of 

 black streaks outlining the affected parts of the vascular 

 system. An abundance of gum or oil is formed, which 

 further obstructs the water circulation. The pepper 

 commences to die from the top, as is usually the case 

 when the water-supply is cut oft by root-death. After 

 the fungus has developed luxuriantly in the tissues of 

 the pepper, it begins to form spores. A brick-red 

 efflorescence appears on the bark overlying the blackened 

 streaks of the wood. This is composed of myriads of 

 minute spores which easily separate and fall to the 

 ground, or are blown by the wind far and wide, and 

 thus may infect other plants. This is not the only 

 form of reproduction possessed by this fungus, for there 

 are no less than four ways in which it can reproduce. 

 In one form it appears as small round bodies, bright red 

 in colour, smaller than a pin-head. Within these are 

 slender sacs containing eight spores each. One of these 

 spores sown in water germinates and produces one or 

 two long transparent threads which soon produce a 

 small branched erect plant bearing balls of minute 

 spores (the form known as Cephalosporium). Another 

 form consists of spindle-shaped bodies, or appears in the 

 form of cushions on the stem, forming the red patches 

 on the withered vines (Fusarium form). In any of 

 these forms the fungus can infect another vine and 

 cause its death. 



Mr. E. J. Butler, in the Agricultural Journal of 

 India, i. p. 31, gives a further account of the diseases 

 of the pepper in Malabar. He says that the supports 

 for pepper in the Wynaad are mostly jungle trees, that 

 the nature of the standard does not appear to affect 

 the disease, and that the worst destruction took place 

 in the hills, though dead and dying plants were not 

 infrequent in the plains. 



He gives the following account of the appearance 

 of the sickness : 



