476 
Griffon and Maublanc, in 1909, working in the French Congo, have 
shown by comparison of various specimens that three other species are 
identical with Diplodia cacaoicola : these are Botryodiplodia Theobromae, 
Patou illard, 1892, the oldest synonym, described on fruits of cacao in 
San Domingo, Lasiodiplodia nigra,, Appel and Lambert on cacao in 
Samoa, and Macrophoma vestita,, Prilleux and Delacroix, 1894, on 
roots of cacao in equatorial America ; these authors have also showm 
that according to the present system of classification the fungus is a 
Lasiodiplodia which they have named Lasiodiplodia Theobromae. More 
recently Petch has described from Ceylon a “die-back” disease of 
llevea brasiliensis, the later stage of which he has attributed to Bot- 
ryodiplodia elasticae, Petch ; he has pointed out that this speeies'is prob- 
ably identical with Diplodia cacaoicola ( Lasiodiplodia \Thedbromae, 
Griffon and Maublanc). There has, therefore, been from time to time 
a multiplication of names for one and the same fungus. 
A careful comparison of the fungus causing the “ die-back ” 
disease, or what is better known as the “ stem and branch ” disease 
of Hevea brasiliensis in the Straits Settlements and Malay States with 
the fungus occurring on cacao in West Africa has quite recently been 
made at the Department of Agriculture at Kuala Lumpur. After an 
examination of several specimens it has been concluded that the two 
fungi are identical. The characters which were considered were the 
nature of the stroma and perithecia, the measurement of the perithe- 
cia, of size and shape of the spares and he the paraphyses ; in these the 
two fungi were indistinguishable from each other 
The cause of the occurrence of these synonyms is the absence of 
a constancy or fixation of characters on which the divisions between 
the genera are based. In Diplodia the perithecia are scattered, in 
Botryodiplodia they are aggregated on a stroma which is smooth and 
in Lasiodiplodia they are included in a stroma which is covered with a 
soft felt of hairs. In the fungus under consideration there is a 
tendency for the perithecia to be scattered on the younger parts of 
the stem, while on the older parts they are usually aggregated on 
a stroma : the stroma is in some cases almost smooth, while in others, 
and especially when the fungus is producing perithecia in large num- 
bers, the stromata are covered by a soft felt of hairs. The perithecia 
always contain paraphyses mixed with the spore-bearing hvphae. 
This variability in characters has led to the multiplication of 
names for the fungus and has tended to prevent the recognition of its 
wide geographical distribution and of its variety of hosts. 
In a previous work* the author was careful to point out that 
judging from analogy the Diplodia on cacao might well be 
expected to belong to an ascigerous fungus which was probably a 
member of the Sphaeriaceae. To investigate this point a number of 
cultures were made in artificial media; several of these are now more 
A Handbook of Fungus Diseases of West Indian Plants, p II, 
