310 
AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OP THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 7.] JULY, 1909. [Vol. VIII 
A NEW FUNGUS-PEST ON PARA RUBBER. 
I have recently received from a planter in Perak por- 
tions of the branches and houghs of Para rubber tree$ des- 
troyed by the attacks of a bark fungus hitherto unknown 
to me. The attack commences on the shoots which pre- 
sently turn black and die, and the disease continues to des- 
cend to the trunk of the tree which eventually perishes. On 
examining the bark attacked, there can be seen numerous 
raised spots, which split and show a black fungus pushing 
out in the crack. In some places the bark is quite thickly 
marked with short straight cracks parallel to the axis of 
the branch. In older parts of the branch the grey bark is 
covered with larger elevated patches black in color and 
looking as if soot had been thrown on the tree. The cam- 
bium is dead and black, the wood dry, and soon perishes. 
Examination with the microscope shows that in these 
black patches are round spaces (perithecia) imbedded in a 
black mass, (stroma) from the interior of which are dis- 
charged large numbers of oval spores, mostly transversely 
divided. The fungus evidently belongs to the group of 
Ascomycetes and appears to me to be allied to a genus 
Cucurbitaria parasitic on the Laburnum in Europe in much 
the same way as this fungus attacks Hevea here. 
The correspondent who sends the specimens writes, 
“Trees with apparently the same disease are dotted about 
the Estate singlv and in groups. 1 am cutting down all the 
diseased trees to the point where the latex exudes healthily. 
This cutting back appears to stop the disease as the stumps 
\%) 
