248 Mr Barber , Parasitic Trees in Southern India. 
parasite. It needs the roots of other plants for its nutrition and 
growth, and their presence for its protection against the attacks of 
animals, and when it is isolated, its food supply is cut off and it 
becomes hide-bound, starved and moribund. 
Recently a very serious and obscure disease has appeared in 
the sandal tracts. This has been called “spike,” and will be 
referred to here briefly because of a useful opening for a young 
student of plant pathology. The government of Mysore, alarmed 
at the ravages of the disease, have offered a prize of Rs. 5000 
(£383) for the discovery of the cause of the disease and its control 
within one year. While a clear exposure of the causes leading to 
spike would be of the greatest value to the government of Mysore, 
the clause demanding a cure within one year shows little grasp 
of the difficulty of the problem and, as it is likely to defeat the 
object aimed at, should be removed. 
The sandal is a beautiful tree with feathery foliage of bright 
green leaves and covered with small brown flowers. The first 
indication of spike is the diminution in size of the leaves, their 
appearance thus becoming more feathery, and the cessation of 
flowering. A flower terminates each branchlet and its formation 
gives the shoot a rest from leaf-formation until the fruit ripens. 
In spiked trees the branch grows on without cessation, forming 
smaller and smaller leaves of short duration until a small tuft is 
left at the end of each twig (Plate I.). This latter appearance is 
responsible for the term “ spike.” This change of the foliage 
into the “small-leaf” condition, not uncommon in tropical plant- 
diseases, is accompanied by the death of all the root-ends — the 
haustoria. An examination of the tissues under the microscope 
shows these to be charged with masses of starch, which fill every 
available cell, even to the thyloses in the vessels of the roots. 
Evidently, while abundant starch is formed by the leaves, there is 
a complete stagnation in metabolism. In a very short time the 
tree dies completely. 
This disease at first attacked very old trees, and the collection 
of the required quantity of wood was rendered rather easier than 
otherwise, and little was done by the government to stay its 
progress. Now that it has spread to very young trees and no seed 
is being formed, the sandal tree has disappeared altogether from 
certain tracts. In other districts, while the immediate supply is 
not diminished, there are comparatively few young trees coming on 
to replace the dead ones. It is satisfactory to see that the Mysore 
government has at length taken a step in the direction urged on 
them years ago. 
The present study of root-parasites in India may be traced 
directly to the occurrence of this disease. The writer was deputed 
for a few days to investigate the matter, and it was soon demon- 
