82 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



tion will be carried on during the coming season with 

 different varieties of tobacco seed obtained from other parts 

 of India. 



IV. Miscellaneous. 



The year under review was marked by the passing of an 

 order, under the Destructive Insects and Pests Act, regu- 

 lating and restricting the importation of plants and seeds 

 into British India. By the provisions of this order no 

 plant may be imported into British India through the letter 

 or sample post, and the importation of plants other than 

 fruit and vegetables intended for consumption, potatoes 

 and sugarcane is restricted to certain prescribed ports, 

 where fumigation with hydrocyanic gas can be carried out. 

 Since fumigation, although satisfactory in the case of insect 

 pests, is not an efficient method of killing fungal parasites 

 in seed and plants, the importation of fungal disease is pro- 

 vided against by a series of clauses regulating the intro- 

 duction of potatoes, sugarcane, rubber plants, coffee plants, 

 coffee, flax, berseem and cotton seeds. This list includes 

 the plants and seeds on which the introduction of danger- 

 ous fungal diseases into India is most probable, and the 

 provisions of the notification ensure that these plants shall 

 only be introduced if accompanied by a certificate from a 

 competent authority in the country of export stating that 

 they are free from certain fungal parasites. In the case of 

 coffee plants and seeds importation may only be done by the 

 Madras Department of Agriculture. 



Dr. Butler's book entitled Fungi and Disease in Plants 

 was published during the year under review and supplies 

 a long felt want in the literature of scientific agriculture 

 in India. 



Additions to the herbarium numbered 122 foreign speci- 

 mens and 97 specimens collected in India. 



V. Programme of work for 191b-19. 

 (1) Research icork. New diseases of Indian crops that 

 come to the notice of the Section will be investigated as 



