38 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



50 litres of water, poured into 2 kilograms of liine in 

 50 litres of water — at intervals of fifteen days. One 

 should take especial care to reach the youngest leaves. 

 The use of corrosive sublimate is also suggested. 



2. Cut all infected leaves and burn them in situ. 



3. Watch for the reappearance of the disease. 



4. In the case in question, sacrifice the 50 bouw 

 worst infected, and use the land for some other crop for 

 a year or so. 



5. In planting, avoid planting great numbers of 

 equally old trees at once, so that many may not at 

 once reach the susceptible age. Also, leave barriers of 

 other crops, or interplant crops which will overtop the 

 young coco-nuts until they pass the time of danger. 



Another fungus, Helminthosporium incurvatum, 

 follows Pestalozzia, and contributes to the injury. 

 Pestalozzia is also found in Java on tea, Para rubber, 

 guttapercha, and other plants, to which it usually does 

 no evident harm. It should always be kept in such 

 check as is practicable, to keep it from doing serious 

 damage when conditions become temporarily more 

 favourable for the fungus than for the host. 



Home states that, though never known to be itself 

 fatal, this is probably doing more damage than any 

 other fungus disease of coco-nuts in Cuba. Because of 

 its prevalence, it was at one time supposed to be the 

 cause of bud rot. 



Stockdale has investigated what he regards as 

 merely a geographical variety of the same disease in 

 Trinidad, and furnishes the following information in 

 regard to it : 



Many trees have leaves which appear to be drooping, and 

 with the tips of the distal leaflets of a greyish colour. An 

 external examination of the leaflet shows that whereas the 

 tip is quite dry and dead and many parts of the edges of the 

 leaflet are in a similar condition, there are small yellowish 

 spots, more or less regular in shape, wlrich may be observed 

 to increase in area. . . . During the growth of the spots, they 

 gradually change from a yellowish colour to a greyish white, 

 and each is bordered by a margin which is of a dark colour, 



