PRELIMINARY AND MINOR PAPERS 
PELLICULARIA KOLEROGA ON COFFEE IN 
PORTO RICO 
By G. L. Fawcett, 
Plant Pathologist , Porto Pico Agricultural Experiment Station 
In a recent publication Dr. J. Kuijper (1912) 1 states that from a 
comparison of the fungus causing the Zilverdraadziekte of Surinam and 
the leaf-blight of coffee ( Cofjea spp.) in Porto Rico he is of the opinion 
that it is not identical with Pellicularia koleroga Cooke of India, judging 
from descriptions of that fungus, and that it also differs from the fungus 
causing the candelillo of Venezuela. This conclusion with regard to the 
identity of the Porto Rican fungus would seem but reasonable if the pos¬ 
session of a gelatinous matrix, such as has been ascribed to P. koleroga in 
some of the descriptions, were necessary 
to make it that fungus. However, the 
fact that errors were made in the orig¬ 
inal descriptions of other coffee fungi and 
that in other respects the descriptions 
agreed fairly well with the appearance of 
the Porto Rican coffee-blight fungus 
seemed to justify the writer’s referring to 
it as P. koleroga in one of the reports of 
the Porto Rico Experiment Station (Faw¬ 
cett, 1911). Moreover, specimens of P. 
koleroga which had been collected in My¬ 
sore, w T here Cooke’s original specimens 
were obtained, kindly sent to me by 
Mr. E. J. Butler, of the Agricultural 
Institute of Pusa, India, agree in every 
way with the Porto Rican leaf-blight 
fungus. It would seem from this that it is a mistake to assume that 
the Porto Rican fungus was not P. koleroga Cooke. 
As to the Venezuelan fungus, studies by the writer cause him to agree 
with Dr. Kuijper that it is different from the Porto Rican fungus. It is 
this difference, however, which shows that it is not Pellicularia koleroga . 
The candelillo of Venezuela is of especial interest, in that Dr. Cooke (1881) 
identified specimens sent to him at Kew as P. koleroga , as he considered 
the coffee leaf-blight of the Old and New Worlds to be the same, and 
consequently all the publications on coffee diseases that have since ap¬ 
peared have similarly treated the subject. This view is in the main cor¬ 
rect, but only accidentally so, since, apparently, the Venezuelan candelillo 
is caused by a related but quite distinct fungus. The appearance of the 
affected trees, characterized principally by blackened leaves hanging 
from fungous threads, is the same. But the affected leaves in specimens 
Fig. i.—E arly stage in development of 
group of hold-fast cells of Pellicularia 
koleroga. 
1 Bibliographic citations in parentheses refer to ** Literature cited,” p. —. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Dept, of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
43841*—14-5 (231) 
Vd. II, No. 3 
June 15, 1914 
B—2 
