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spores. Nothing else was noticeable except a trace of young Corticium 
here and there and a considerable number of the elevated cracks 
suspiciously like those of Diplodia as figured in the Kew Bulletin. 
I examined these but could find nothing beneath the elevations 
to suggest that they were due to this fungus. After keeping the 
sticks, part in my house and part in the office till May 17, nearly all 
the portions of stem suddenly produced black soot-like masses of 
spores. The previous night had been very rainy and in the morning 
the fungus was found to have fruited both in the office and in my 
house simultaneously. The spores were produced in strings standing 
erect or curled, or in irregular masses, of considerable size. There 
could be no doubt of there being those of the fungus called by 
Massee Diplodia rapax. 
Mr. Petch, in his circular, on the die-back of Hevea braziliensis 
Jan, 1910, describes a disease in Ceylon as caused by two fungi. A 
Gloeosporium which attacks the top shoot and kills it. Then appears 
a secondary fungus called Botryodiplodia elasticae. This, he says, does 
not enter the tree till the top shoot has been destroyed. It is the 
only fungus observable in cases of die-back and causes the death of 
the tree. 
I cannot say I have seen anything to suggest that the top shoots 
in the trees affected are attacked by anything but Diplodia, nor do my 
investigations in this point show this at all. 
Possibly our plant is not identical with the Botryodiplodia of Cey- 
lon, but it seems likely that the two plants are the same. It will be 
remembered that Diplodia rapax appeared in Western Africa simul- 
taneously with its first record in the Malay peninsula. Mr. Petch 
writes that in 1908 a consignment of Hevea stumps was forwarded 
from Ceylon to German West Africa, via Hamburg. They were 
examined there and found to be attacked by a Diplodia which was 
called Lasiodiplodia nigra . This, he thinks, must be the Botryodiplodia 
of Ceylon. 
Now, as far as we are aware, no stumps have been sent from the 
peninsula, certainly not from the Singapore gardens, to Western 
Africa, so tha't it looks as if the Diplodia rapax Massee was the same 
thing as Botryodiplodia, or Lasiodiplodia nigra , and that it got to Africa 
from Ceylon, 
The Botryodiplodia of Ceylon has not been found to cause serious 
damage in the cocoa on which it grows in Ceylon, for it seems there 
to live only on dead stems, but it is otherwise in the West Indies. It 
has, however, attacked seriously the roots of the tea. 
Mr. Petch’s circular on the subject is excellent and important 
and well worth reading. 
There can be no doubt but that Diplodia is a most dangerous 
pest whether it requires the assistance of the Gloeosporium to invade 
