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near to the Malay Peninsula it is very desirable that a watch be kept 
for its appearance here. 
The disease is not situated in the bud of the tree, but in the roots, 
which are attacked by a parasitic fungus belonging to the genus 
Botryodiplodia, at least this fungus appears always to occur on the 
rotting roots of trees affected by this disease. The destruction of the 
lateral roots cuts off the water supply of the palm so that the bud 
dies of drought and starvation. 
The death of the palms is very slow. “ Young palms may be killed 
in five years, but this is exceptional. Eight or ten years appears to 
be a more usual period, while in many cases the disease progresses 
enough to cause barrenness but fails to kill the tree outright. Thus, 
in one large gardenonly two hundred coconut palms were in bearing 
out of about two thousand, while the deaths were not numerous.” 
“The disease is worst in heavy alluvial valleys and poor laterite 
hill soils. It is least severe in the sandy soil of the littoral. There is 
plenty of evidence that the disease is infectious. A palm evidently 
affected and brought from an infected district ten years ago was 
planted in a garden where the trees were all healthy. A few years 
later, it began to turn yellow and others near by were attacked ; now 
thirteen trees are affected and the original one is dead and the disease 
has spread to neighbouring gardens.” 
The disease attacks not only coconuts, but betelnuts, and 
caryotas. The treatment recommended is destruction of all diseased 
palms whether they be only just attacked or practically dying. The 
roots should be dug out and with the stem leaves burnt at once. Lime, 
preferably quick lime, should be well dug in to the infected spot, and 
the ground frequently dug over to break up and aerate the soil. If 
necessary, the soil should be drained, as undrained or insufficiently 
drained soil affects the roots injuriously and the weeds on the ground 
destroyed, and manuring with cow dung or nitrogenous fertilizers 
should be tried. No plants should be planted in the infected spot for 
a year after the removal of the diseased trees. 
As in the case of most at least of these underground root fungi, 
the progress is comparatively slow, so that it should be possible if 
taken in time to stop an outbreak with the loss of a very few trees, 
but in order to do this plantations must be carefully examined, and 
any tree exhibiting the symptoms described above should be destroyed 
and removed as quickly as possible. 
There is another bud-ot disease in India produced by the fungus 
Pythium palmivorum in which the shoot is actually attacked by the 
fungus. The withering of the shoot at an early stage is the most 
characteristic feature. The first symptom is the turning white of a 
whole leaf towards the centre of the crown, the bud then turns white, 
rots and the crown falls off, the whole of the “cabbage” becoming 
converted into a putrid, foul-smelling mass. The whole palm is killed 
