9o2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCILTT, Vol. XXI. 



under the title : ' The Bud-Rot of Palms in India.' ' It is from 

 this paper that we borrow the following notes : — 



The disease w^as practically confined to a comparatively limited 

 area in the delta of the Godavari River. A few cases of the same 

 disease were observed at Changarachery (Travancore) in 1907, 

 where the fungus was found producing its characteristic spores in 

 3'oung leaf blades of cocoanut trees in the unexpanded stage of 

 the bud." 



The bud-rot is said to have first appeared in Addenkivarilanka, 

 an island in the Gautami Godavari belonging to the Ramachen- 

 drapur Taluk, about 1890. From this it spread to both banks of 

 the river and extended along the banks as well as inland. Judging 

 from the extension that has occurred in the area as a whole, the 

 rate of spread is estimated little over a mile a year. It has, how- 

 ever, been ascertained, that in certain places an extension of 

 between 2 and 3 miles occurred. It must not be supposed that 

 the disease is uniforml}" distributed within its area. Great differ- 

 ence may be observed in the severity of the attack from village to 

 village and even from field to field. It seems that the nature of 

 the soil exercises a direct influence on the susceptibility of the 

 palm to attack. Thus, whilst trees along water-courses and in 

 periodically flooded localities die more quickly and in larger pro- 

 portion, little disease has been found in the light sandj" soils of 

 the sea coast villages. The black soils appear most to favouv the 

 disease. 



The way in which infection is spread fi'om tree to tree is not 

 yet fulh^ understood. Butler has shown that direct application of 

 the parasitic fungus to the crown of a healthy tree leads to infec- 

 tion of the latter. If this be the case, it is not difiicult to account 

 for the spread of the disease by considering the chief possible 

 methods of propagation in similar cases, viz., through the air 

 under certain favourable circumstances, by human agenc}*, espe- 

 cially in cases where the diseased parts of the plant are habitually 



^ E. J. Butler. The Bud-Rot of Palms in India. Mem. of the Dep. Agricult. in 

 India, Vol. Ill, No. r> (1910). p. 221-280. 5 pi. and 1 map. 



" E. J. Butler. Report on Cocoanut Palm diseas n Travancore. Bull. Agric- 

 Res. Inst., Pusa, No. 9, March 1908- 



