, 1894-05-30

o%roscopic examination should also be made of
the roots, as the rainy season sets III. This
appears to be the time when the damage is
first ustained-just as is the case with the
Sereh cane disease Of Java. The soil should
also be examined i'll June to see II there Is any
worm or beetle at the roots. The root tips as
in Sereh appear to be bitten Vr injured.
IRON what ! have observed / shall await
with great interest the receipt of q copy OF
Dr.. Vents Dutch paper or further informa-
ito from Kew for the clearing up OF the
difficulty. II
My fiiend Mr.. Clarke pointed out to me a
passage of great interest in Schonburghk's
History of Barbados. From this it would APP
pear that in or about 1860 several OF the
West Indian islands were visited by q disease
in the ca me felds-accompanied by immense
numbers of ants, called sugar ants" These
caused such devastation that it was deliber-
ated whether that island (BarbadosI former
ly SO fourishing, should not be deserted.
Whatever the cause of the disease was 1t IS
not probable that the ants attacked the plants
1t is quite a Gust, mary thing for ants to &C
company and feed upon blight Of various
kinds. and we know that the scale insects or
Aphides are cherished and "milked" by ants
at stated intervals. No plant lice are how
ever mentioned az being present. Schom-
hurghk continues: 1T did not appear, &C
cording to Mr.. Castles, that these ants tell on
any part of the canes las no loss OF SUB
stance had ever beer observed. nor had they
ever been seen carrying off vegetable matter
Of my sort. It is therefore concluded that
the roots were injured by them 30 as to be
incapable of performing their office of sup
plying nouriShment to the plants, which be-
came sickly and stunted and ultimately perish
ed. The sickly canes during the prevalence
of this plague IN the island did not afford
Juices fit for making sugar in either toIerable
quantity or quality In l776 the Govern
ment of Martinique offered q reward of a mil
lion of their currency for a remedy against
this plague, and the Legislature OF Grenada
offered $40. 900 for the sam object; but sll
attempts proved Intellectual, until The bur
ricane OF 1880 effected what human power
had been unable to accomplish The sugar ant
dissppeared before the violence of this lorna
o....They are still found in Barbados, but
only in small numbers
In certain respects the disease under con-
sideration resembles the gall patch of Anti
qua. do not know whether the experiment
has been tried Of planting the hardy purple
canes in gall-patches in Antigua. If not, 1t
certainly might be whether any
kind different from the Bourbon is able to
thrive on these spots. The galE-patch OF
Antigua seems to me rather however to resem~
bic the .'m0onstruck" canes of Barbados, and
| am told that the general indications and
behaviour Ct the latter are quite distinct
from those Of canes attacked by root fungus. |
The gall patches of limestone districts
in Antigua have already been examined by
Mr.. Watts and will undoubtedly have to be
dealt with in any future treatment OF cane
diseases. The results of the Investigations
in Barbados will certainly be useful IN direct
ing our enquiries.
Lastly, the disease under consideration
bears strong resemblance in certain respects
TO the dreaded Sereh of West Java cane-helds.
There appears to be no one distinguishing
character by which this latter disease can be
detected. The retardation Of growth and
shortness of joints, the great number OF dead
roots and the frequent "bitten" character OF
their tips, the attempt to throw up new shoots
from the stool to replace the dying ones
above-thesu and other characters seem dis
t~;notlv to Indicate that tie diseases are or
the same nature. On the other hand l have
not observed that particularly violent red
colo ration Of The fbr-ovaecnlar bundles which
is given as the only constant character OF
Sereh.
Sereh has been determined by DR.. Janse to
he q bacterial disease. Myriads of bacteria
are frequently present in plant cells without
L. A. INV ioiurv huf inst AS M anil