512 MR. D. MORRIS ON THE STRUCTURE AXD 



This consists of four vertical rows of bracteate flowers ; and a 

 line drawn through each successive bract, and projected on a 

 plane, corresponds with the projection of a similar line for 



» 



It or ago. 



Note on the Structure and Habit of HemUeia vastatricc, the 

 Coffee-l^af Disease of Ceylon and Southern India. By D. 

 MorrVs, B.A., Trin. Coll. Dubl., F.G.S., Director of the 

 Botanical Department, Jamaica, late on special duty, Coffee- 

 leaf Disease Inquiry, Ceylon. (Communicated by W. T. 



TnisEi/ro]* Dter, M.A., F.L.S.) 



[Read November 6, 1879.] 



The subject of the present note was first described by the Eev. 

 M. J. Berkeley in the < Gardener's Chronicle ' for 18G9 (p. 1157, 

 with woodcut) . It was afterwards included in the list of Cey- 

 lon Fungi determined by Messrs. Berkeley and Broome, and 

 published in the Linnean Society's Journal (Botany, vol. xiv. 

 p. 93, pi. iii. fig. 10). A short notice appeared in the ' Quar- 

 terly Journal of Microscopical Science,' 1873, pp. 79-81* ; and 

 last year the subject was treated in greater detail by the lie v. 

 R. Abbay, in a paper read before this Society, June 6, 1878 

 (Journ. Linn. Soc. Botany, vol. xvii. pp. 173-184, pis. xiii. 

 & xiv.), which added considerably to our knowledge of the 

 subject. 



The leaf-disease, as mentioned by Mr. Abbay, first appeared in 



Ceylon in May 1869 ; and it soon spread with rapid strides over 



the cultivated and native coffee of the island. It was noticed in 



the coffee-districts of Southern India during 1869 and 1870, 



almost simultaneously with its appearance in Ceylon. In 1876 



it was reported on coffee in Sumatra and Bencoolen ; and this year 



(1879) the Director of the Botanic Garden at Buitenzorg, Java, 



reports its presence on the coffee-estates of that island in a severe 

 form. 



It is evident, therefore, that HemUeia vastatrix is gradually ex- 

 tending its ravages over the whole of the coffee-producing areas 

 of the East Indies; and unless decisive steps are taken to con- 



* In 1876 Dr. M. C. Cooke described and figured the fruit from Indian spe- 

 cimens, in the India-Museum Report, 1870, pp. 4-6. 



