Vol. XIV. No. 348. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



287 



FLORA <>F JAMAICA, bj W. Fawcett, B.Sc, F.L.S., 

 and A. B. Rendle, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S,, F.L.S. Vol. 3. 

 Dicotyledons I Pipi 

 with 113 text illustrations and opiates. London: 1'rustees 



-in, l'Jl 1. 



This is the ir of this admirable 



wor ]j ' ' [, i ilished in 1910, Vol 11, 



ipleting the Monocotyledons, not yel issued. It is 



\ thai thi I »ii otyli don -ill require three more 



unes, making six in all. 



Tli d : imilies followed is that of Engler, and the 



present volume includes thirty-eight natural orders, with 

 ■mal\ tic il kej a to and descriptio famili genera, 



species. An illustration of each genus is given, usually as 

 a line drawing in the text. \ list of references and 

 synonyms is given for each species. The larger West [ndian 

 families I in this volume are Piperaceace, VIoraceae, 



Urticaceae, Loranthaceae, Polygonaeeae, Amarantaceae and 



I i rear. 



It is sufficient to say that the work is indispensable to 

 botanists working in the West Indies, and apart from its 

 primary purpose it will afford welcome relief to beginners in 

 the study of the West Indian flora by serving as a key to 

 tin' comparatively uncharted pages and ancient terminology 



The Jamaii u Government i- to be congratulated on 

 the service rendered to botanical science in affording 

 facilities and financial help for tin- production of the Flora, 

 and further upon its good fortune in having the services of 



so happy a combination of authors made available for the 

 purpose by the British Museum authorities. 



W.N. 



JAVANESE COFFEE AND THE 



GOVERNMENT. 



In a recenl issue of the Agricultural News we 

 reproduced an i ctracl from Dr. Copeland's Report on 

 a visit to Java published in the Philippine Agricul- 

 turist anil Funster for April 1915. The follow n _ 

 another extract dealing with the subject of cpff|e. It 

 shows hovi the Javanese authorities have in the face 

 of difficulties saved this industry from extinction; and 

 later brought it up to a position , economic 



importance. Dr. Copeland's n ntre principally 



around the subject of diseasi He s 



The coffee rust attacked Java reral years before it 

 reached the Philippines, and i solutely nothing but the 



difference in the 



i important and profit- 



aide coffee industry Philippit i I 



d for I be p < 



ll lllet the C I 



:ally, and bj : : i in ind 



whicl u 'i the world. The n ll 



that l 



experimented with at I . and in almost 



similar insi itution in the i e ill been brought to 



ittention by the ( lovernment ol the 1 tutcb I 

 of th how great promise was Liberian coffee. Tin-; 



was widely heralded es, and t 



ensively planted in .l;i>. i, and 

 other parts of the ( )ld World tropics. It de^ ifter 



a time that the quality of the marketed Liberian coffee was 



h that it could only lie raised with a profit where 

 is exceedingly cheap, at i i en here it was at a serious 

 economic disadvantage. The Dutch Government met this 

 difficulty by a careful study of m paration, v i 



the ultimate result rathei recentlj obtained, and for which, 



although I have myseli made a cot rable study of 



subject, I was absolutely unprepared, that the I 

 produced in Java i - now being 



of the Arabian coffee for which Java itsell is so famous. 



A wholbj new and unexpected difficulty then presented 

 itself. The Liberian c m to be attacked by rust,, 



and these attacks increased in virulet ir, until 



the coffee rust of Java now attack- Liberian coffee with 

 approximately the same violence as Arabian. This is at the 

 same time a matter of prodigious practical importance, ami 

 a fact of the utmost scientific interest. Neither the coi 

 nor the coffee rust is native in Java. It is practically 

 impossible that the rust which now attacks the Liberian 

 eott'ee should be anything else than a descendant of the rust 

 which was formerly aide to attack Arabian coffee but not 

 Liberian. In other words, the pest has in the course of 

 a number of years develbped wholly new properties. 

 Uninfected Liberian coffee has been exported from Java and 

 raised elsewhere, and found immune to the rust of the other 

 regions. At the same time, new importations of Liberiao 

 coffee, immune to rust in the places of origin, have been 

 brought into Java and promptly attacked. Now the ability 

 to live on a particular host is in very mam yarded aa 



a good specific character of a fungus. It can accordingly In* 

 regarded as definitely established that there has been, 

 developed in Java during he last twenty-five years a fungus 

 of known parentage, but which now has character- specifically 

 different from those of the parent coffee rust of ( 'eyhni. This 

 is the most satisfactory case known to me in the whole realm 

 of science, of the evolution of anew species from a known 

 parent within a definitely known length of time, and under 

 conditions which are a matter of satisfactory record. 



Attention has been given by the United States I lepartment 



o| Agriculture to the botanical characters of the leaves of the 

 date palm for the purpose of distinguishing cultivated 

 varieties. The observations obtained are published in 

 Bulletin No. .'.'■/ of tic Bureau of Plant Industry. In 



measuring the angles at which the leai t,a special 



protractor was used, and the whole investigation was almost 

 entirely mechanical as mi mnt of the 



very - al arrangement ot the leaves of the date palm. 



The microscopic characters of the leaves is not touched on. 



