PANDANUS DISEASE 293 



of inserting a germ-tube into the unbroken surface of the 

 bark, but gain an entrance through wounds. A knife used 

 for cutting out a diseased portion was afterwards used for 

 making a sb'ght incision in the branch of a healthy plant, 

 and the disease followed. 



Preventive Means. — All wounded surfaces should be 

 coated with tar at once, and care should be exercised in 

 pruning or trimming not to cut sound branches with a 

 knife that has been used for cutting out diseased parts, 

 until it is disinfected. 



Massee, Gard. Mag., July 23, 1898, fig. 



PANDANUS DISEASE 



(Melanconium pandani, L6v.) 



The surface of the trunk, aerial roots, and adventitious 

 branches of cultivated species of Screwpine {Fandanus) 

 are sometimes attacked by a fungus which forms small 

 black pustules, bursting through the epidermis, and at 

 maturity extruding black, subgelatinous tendrils, consisting 

 of minute conidia held together by a mucilaginous sub- 

 stance. These pustules are often produced in immense 

 numbers, and blacken the parts attacked. 



An ascigerous form — Nectria pandani, Tul. — frequently 

 appears on the Melanconium pustules, and the two are 

 considered as phases of one fungus, but this has not yet 

 been proved. 



Preventive Means. — If the diseased parts are cut out, 

 and the wounds covered with a fungicide as soon as the 

 disease is observed, it may be arrested ; if neglected, the 

 plant invariably dies. 



