340 D. Prain — The Vegetation of the Coco Group. [No. 4, 



334. HiRNEOLA POLYTRICHA Mont. 



Great Coco, on dead wood. 



Tropics of both hemispheres and Polynesia. 



335. Xylaria clavarioides G. Massee, sp. nov. 



Xylaria {Xylocoryne) stromatibus saapius solitariis rarius in C3espiti- 

 bus 2 — 5 connatis cylindraceis, 2 — 4 cm. altis, ^ — f diam. ; extus atris 

 papilloso-scabris, intus candidis stipite elongato, coriaceo-suberoso 

 nigro-velutino demum nudo ; peritheciis clavulae omnino immersis ; 

 ascis cylindricis, pedicellatis, octosporis ; sporidiis oblique monostichis, 

 ellipticis, nigricantibus 10 — 11 x fi. (Prain n. 45). In lignis pn- 

 tridis. 



Great Coco, common on dead stems of Mimusops Uttoralis. 



336. Daldinia vernicosa Cos. & de Not. 

 Great Coco, on dead wood. 



India, America. 



337. Rhytisma sp. 



In all the islands, on leaves of Fictis hrevicuspis. 

 Andamans, (the same species apparently is equally common at Port 

 Blair). 



338. — . 



Besides the above there occurs on both islands a Fungus which 

 appears to be very widely dispersed throughout the Andamans and 

 Nicobars, but has so far been only found as a white mycelium that ap- 

 pears as a narrow band on the bark of slender branches, runs upwards 

 along these and divides into still narrower bands on the branchlets ; 

 these branch and anastomose and send still narrower bands (threads) 

 upwards along the petioles of the leaves and finally spread as a thin 

 network on the under surface of the lamina. The writer has found the 

 same blight (known to the officers at Port Blair as " thread-blight ") 

 on the following species : Alsodeia hengaleoisis, Ochna squarrosa, Bombax 

 insigne, Camellia theifera, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Gardenia sp., Pongamia 

 glabra, Diplospora singularis, Blachia andamanica, Ficus nitida ; it is 

 also reported to occur on a species of Phalcenopsis. Its effect is in every 

 case the same, the leaves affected become yellow and sickly, and as 

 regards Ochna among indigenous species and the Tea-plant among 

 cultivated species, when affected they become brown and die. The 

 blight spreads with great rapidity and for a time threatened the existence 

 of the Tea- industry at Port Blair. Drs. Cunningham and Barclay 

 have both examined specimens but as there is no sign of any advance 

 beyond the mycelial stage the position of the Fungus is at present 

 indeterminable. 



