AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THK 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED riALAy STATES. 
No. 12.] DECEMBER, 1910. [Vol. IX 
A PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE FUNGUS 
CAUSING THE “ DIE-BACK ” DISEASE 
OF CACAO AND OF PARA RUBBER 
By Keith Bancroft, b. a. 
Assistant Mycologist, F.M.S. 
In some recent publications* the author has had occasion to 
refer to the necessity for making a complete investigation of the 
life-history of Diplodia cacaoicola , P. Henn., the fungus which has 
long been known to cause the “ die-back ” disease of the stem of the 
cacao plant and the “ brown rot ” of the cacao pods. Since these 
publications were issued, further work has revealed two facts which are 
considered to be of some importance ; the first of these is the establish- 
ment of the identity between the fungi causing the “ die back ” of cacao 
and of Para rubber, and the second is the discovery of the mature form 
or ascigerous condition of the fungus. Before describing the work 
which has led to these conclusions it will, perhaps, be better to briefly 
summarise the work of several authors on the fungus more especially 
from a historical point of view. 
Diplodia cacaoicola was described by Hennings on wood of cacao 
from the Cameroons in 1896. Howard, in 1901, investigated a die- 
back disease of cacao in Grenada, West Indies, and showed that the 
fungus which caused the disease was identical with this species. 
Since then the fungus has been shown to occur on cacao throughout 
the West Indian Islands and has also been reported from St. 
Thome, West Africa, Java, Samoa, the Philippines and Surinam. 
Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 1910, No. 3. A Handbook of the Fungus 
Diseases of West Indian Plants, p. It, 
