Diseases 227 



the disease practically wiped out the coco-nut 

 industry of Luchan. 



Further evidence that humidity is a condition 

 of contagion is found in the fact that young 

 trees are more susceptible than old ones : this 

 is probably caused by the air moving com- 

 paratively freely about the crowns of the tall 

 trees, and so keeping them fairly dry. 



With bud-rot disease it is noticed that while 

 the roots and stem are perfectly healthy, the 

 bases of the youngest leaves and their wrap- 

 pings are in a rotten condition, as are also the 

 bases of the still unfolded flower stalks. In 

 a palm that is still standing the disease is 

 invisible until the harder outer coverings of the 

 bud are removed, then, instead of finding a 

 healthy white cabbage, a pale, brown, rotten 

 mass is seen. A badly diseased bud is gener- 

 ally full of fly larvae, &c., and the smell is 

 awful. 1 Sometimes the appearance of the 

 palm, when first affected by bud-rot disease, 

 leads one to imagine that the trees have been 

 attacked by the root-disease. On being felled, 

 however, it is, in such instances, found that 

 the roots are healthy, while the bud was in- 

 volved in a vile-smelling sort of bacterial rot. 



It is noticed in Trinidad that the disease is 

 not of a very infectious character, and would 

 appear to be largely due to unfavourable con- 

 ditions of soil, drainage, &c. Weakly trees, 



1 F. A. Stockdale, West Indian Bulletin, vol. ix, 

 pp. 361-381. 



