44 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



general putrefaction of this and more or less of the cabbage 

 ensues ; the shoot droops, and in some cases falls to the 

 ground ; the tree decays soon after, and we are left lookers-on 

 and losers. ... It is only the most vigorous trees that are, as 

 a rule, affected. 



The natives were said to ascribe it to falling stars. 



A bud rot of the Palmyra and other palms near the 

 mouth of the Godaveri River is said to have been seen 

 as long ago as 1894, but was not reported until 1904, 

 and not, at this point, on the coco-nut until 1905. 

 Butler published a careful study of this disease in 1907, 

 at which date it infested a circle of about 14 miles 

 radius. The first symptom is a discoloration of a 

 recently expanded leaf, which then turns w r hite and 

 withers ; other leaves follow ; the nuts fall prematurely 

 and no more are formed. 



The leaf - sheaths of all diseased trees are marked by 

 irregular sunken spots in greater or less number. In the 

 earlier stages . . . the spots are white ; later on they become 

 brown. They are always sunken, and usually have somewhat 

 raised edges. They begin in the outer sheaths and may be 

 traced in through succeeding ones toward the heart of the 

 bud. As the inner layers are softer, the inside patches are 

 often larger than those outside, and may even give rise to new 

 patches which extend out again to the outside sheath. . . . 

 The earlier patches are dry and either free from any appearance 

 of a parasite on the surface or covered with a white mycelial 

 felt. Very soon a wet rot follows, which extends with great 

 rapidity in the delicate central tissues and converts the whole 

 heart into a foul- smelling mass of putrefaction, in which every- 

 thing is involved and the original agent is lost sight of. 



It is only in the early states before the wet rot starts that 

 the true cause can be made out. This is a fungus of the genus 

 Pythium. ... In quite young spots the mycelium is found 

 only within the leaf tissues, where its threads extend between 

 the cells, sending little branches or haustoria into them. . . . 

 Later on it comes out on the surface, forming often a dense 

 white felt of filaments bearing sporangia. There is no positive 

 information as to its dissemination. No remedial measures 

 intended to cure trees already attacked are possible. 



It was at first recommended by Butler that all 



