278 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
blackened, and the blackening extends to the stem. 
The fungus spreads rapidly through the tissues, most 
rapidly through the vessels, causing the appearance of 
black streaks outlining the affected parts of the vascular 
system. An abundance of gum or oil is formed, which 
further obstructs the water circulation. The pepper 
commences to die from the top, as is usually the case 
when the water-supply is cut off by root-death. After 
the fungus has developed luxuriantly in the tissues of 
the pepper, it begins to form spores. A brick-red 
efflorescence appears on the bark overlying the blackened 
streaks of the wood. This is composed of myriads of 
minute spores which easily separate and fall to the 
ground, or are blown by the wind far and wide, and 
thus may infect other plants. This is not the only 
form of reproduction possessed by this fungus, for there 
are no less than four ways in which it can reproduce. 
In one form it appears as small round bodies, bright red 
in colour, smaller than a pin-head. Within these are 
slender sacs containing eight spores each. One of these 
spores sown in water germinates and produces one or 
two long transparent threads which soon produce a 
small branched erect plant bearing balls of minute 
spores (the form known as Cephalosporium). Another 
form consists of spindle-shaped bodies, or appears in the 
form of cushions on the stem, forming the red patches 
on the withered vines {Fusarium form). In any of 
these forms the fungus can infect another vine and 
cause its death. 
Mr. E. J. Butler, in the Agricultural Journal of 
India, i. p. 31, gives a further account of the diseases 
of the pepper in Malabar. He says that the supports 
for pepper in the Wynaad are mostly jungle trees, that 
the nature of the standard does not appear to affect 
the disease, and that the worst destruction took place 
in the hills, though dead and dying plants were not 
infrequent in the plains. 
He gives the following account of the appearance 
of the sickness : — 
