PEANUT DISEASES 293 



PEANUT DISEASES OF MAJOR IMPORTANCE 

 IN OTHER AREAS 



Virus diseases, bacterial wilt, and rust — major diseases in some 

 peanut-producing regions — have never been considered important in 

 the United States. Both viroses and bacterial wilt appeared in the East 

 Indies and spread to other regions. Virus diseases are of major im- 

 portance in Africa; bacterial wilt is of major importance in the East 

 Indies. Peanut rust is a disease of the West Indies, but has been re- 

 ported from Africa and the United States. 



VIRUS DISEASES OF PEANUTS 



General 



History. In 1907 a peanut "krauselkrankheit" (curl disease) was re- 

 ported from Java (175). According to Storey and Bottomley (143) a 

 similar or identical disease was noted in South Africa about 1909. 



The name "rosette" was applied to the South African curl disease 

 about 1925 (3, 143). Storey and Bottomley in 1925 (143) regarded 

 rosette as definitely a virosis and transmitted the disease. Rosette was 

 reported from equatorial Africa in 1926 (24), and was reported ex- 

 tensively from the African region thereafter. In 1945, rosette was 

 noted as one of the three most important diseases of peanuts in Rhodesia, 

 South Africa (64). 



Virus diseases other than rosette have been reported from other 

 areas. Mosaic was reported on peanuts in Argentina in 1936 (133) and 

 in China in 1939 (174). In 1941 Costa (38) described a "ring spot" of 

 peanut in Brazil as a virosis. KenKnight in 1941 (75) reported a trans- 

 mittable virus disease, called "stunt," of peanuts in Texas. Jensen in 

 1948 (71) regarded virus diseases of peanuts as apparently unimportant 

 in North Carolina but recognized the following: A leaf mottling 

 (mosaic?) as a transmittable virosis; a ring spot as a fairly definite 

 virosis; a rosette-like disease and a witches'-broom, both somewhat in- 

 definite as to nature at present. Similar conclusions were later reached 

 by Cooper (37), and most of these conditions have been reported from 

 Australia (99). At present, then, there are only four described diseases 

 of peanuts more or less definitely connected with viruses: Rosette, 

 mosaic, ring spot, stunt. 



There is considerable confusion as to the various viroses or probable 

 viroses of peanuts. Several different conditions have been described as 



