64 
THE DISEASES AND PESTS OF THE COCONUT PALM. 
By R, M, Richaeds, a.k.c.sc. 
( Mycologist , M. P. A. Association). 
TT is only in recent years that any real knowledge of this subject 
has been attained. As recently as 1906 Prudbomme stated 
that “the important enemies and parasites are animals,” but there 
is little doubt that diseases caused by fungi and bacteria did exist 
years before that date. 
It is known that “ bud-rot ” existed in the West Indies long 
before the disease attracted any general attention. 
The coconut palm in various parts in the tropical world like 
other plants producing economic products, but unlike the rubber 
tree up to the present time, has been subject to diseases of an 
epidemie nature. Climatic conditions in the tropics are so eminently 
suitable for the rapid development and spread of a disease that 
at any time any single cultivated plant grown in contiguous tracts 
of land is susceptible to epidemics, and it is oniy by exercising the 
utmost care in guarding against disease that the coconut industry 
can be maintained. 
Warnings such as this have been issued and published by so 
many woidfcrs, in fact they appear in any work dealing with the 
culti ration in general or with the diseases of any particular economic 
and widely cultivated plant. 
However, such warnings cannot be repeated too frequently and 
are not to be treated lightly or with contempt ; they are not 
emanations from pessimistic or alarmist minds. 
In 1906 a severe epidemic of “ bud-rot ” occurred in the delta of 
the Godaveri river, India, affecting palmyra, coconut and areea 
(betel nut) palms; in the province of La Laguna in Lussar, an 
epidemic of the same disease affecting coconut palms was reported 
as having occurred in 1907 ; and serious attacks have been recorded 
in the West Indies. Pestalozzia palmarum caused an epidemic 
disease in Kempit in the Banjorwaugi Presidency in Java in 1905-6. 
Either these or some other disease may possibly become epidemic in 
the Malay Peninsula. 
Diseases. 
Theilaviojisis ethacetica. — Fetch described this fungus as the 
cause of the “ Bleeding disease of the coconut stem in Ceylon.” 
The following is the description of the disease as given by the Ceylon 
Government Mycologist. 
