They were transported to the laboratory in polythene bags. For isolating pathogenic fungi, leaves with spots were cut into small pieces, surface sterilized with 0.1% HgCl2 for 20 seconds, rinsed thoroughly in four changes of sterile distilled water and dried with sterile filter paper. The leaf pieces were then cut into smaller pieces and plated on Czapek dox or potato dextrose agar supplemented with 25 ppm streptomycin and incubated at 28 to 30 C. The fungi that grew were isolated, and pure cultures were obtained from single spores or hyphal tips and maintained on potato dextrose agar in tubes.