GREY BLIGHT OF TEA PLANT 295 



'GREY BLIGHT' OF TEA PLANT 



(Pestalozzia guepini, Desmaz.) 



Said by Dr. Watt to be one of the most destructive and 

 dangerous of parasitic fungi to which the tea plant is liable. 

 It occurs in Assam and Cachar, and probably in all the 



Fig. 78. — Pestalozzia guepini. i, blotches caused 

 by the fungus on a tea leaf, slightly reduced; 2, 

 spores of the fungus, X 350. 



tea districts of India, also in Ceylon. The disease first 

 appears as minute, brownish-grey spots on the upper 

 surface of the leaves. These spots gradually increase in 

 size and coalesce, forming large, irregular blotches, which 

 finally become grey and sprinkled with minute black points, 

 the fruit of the fungus. During the increase in size the 



