2 BULLETIN 542, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTUBE. 
(Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penzig), a fungus which frequently 
attacks the young flower spikes and destroys them. Its activities 
are largely dependent upon weather conditions, being greatest when 
the air is warm and moist, with frequent showers. This question 
was studied by McMurran. 1 Sometimes the flowers appear hi dry 
weather and escape unharmed, but a few days of showery weather 
later on may provide favorable conditions for the development of 
the fungus, and the young fruits may be destroyed or badly disfigured 
and deformed. In some seasons trouble from this source is relatively 
slight, hi others serious. 
Allowing for injury from this cause, which is an important factor 
in the production of mangos, it was believed, that there must be 
other factors responsible for many of the crop failures of the Mulgoba 
and other varieties. Several Indian and West Indian writers have 
suggested that defective pollination might be one of the most im- 
portant factors, and it was for the purpose of determining its precise 
importance that the investigations herein described were under- 
taken at Miami, Fla., in 1915 and were continued in 1916. In 
connection with any studies such as this on the pollination of fruit- 
bearing trees, two papers by M. B. Waite 2 should be examined. 
THE MANGO FLOWER AND ITS POLLINATION. 
It has been affirmed by Hartless 3 that the mango is largely, if 
not solely, wind pollinated. Other writers have also advanced the 
opinion that the wind is an important agent in effecting pollination. 
It seems evident, however, that the mango has none of the charac- 
teristics of an anemophilous plant, but, on the other hand, presents 
well-developed adaptations to insect pollination, so that it may be 
considered truly entomophilous. The amount of pollen which 
reaches the stigmas was found to be slightly greater in one instance 
on a very windy day; but this undoubtedly was due to the brushing 
of one flower against another or against the surrounding foliage, 
the panicles being thrashed violently about. 
Some of the principal characteristics of an anemophilous plant 
are that (1) the pollen is abundant, compensating for the enormous 
waste in transport; (2) the pollen grains are dry and incoherent, so 
that they are easily carried by the wind; and (3) the stigmas are 
commonly large and bushy and freely exposed, so as to have every 
chance of catching the floating pollen grains. The mango has none 
1 McMurran, S. M. The anthracnose of the mango in Florida. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 52, 15 p., 4 fig., 
4 pi. 1914. 
2 Waite, M. B. The pollination of pear flowers. U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Veg. Path. Bui. 5, 110 p., 5 fig., 
12 pi. 1894. 
Pollination of pomaceous fruits. In U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook, 1898, p. 167-1S0, fig. 32-44. 
1899. 
3 Hartless, A. C Mango crops and some factors influencing them. In Agr. Jour. India, v. '.), pi. 2, 
p. 141-159. 1914. 
