LIBRA*?'" 

 NEW Y* • 

 BtfTANK 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. ^^'^^^ 



A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



Vol. IX. No. 211. 



BARBADOS, MAY 28, 1910. 



Price Id. 



CONTENTS. 



H-iobab Trees fnr Stm-iiiL; 

 Wiitei- ". 



Biisic .Slag, The Ainuunt 

 of Lime in 



Black Fungus in Mont- 

 senat 



Bimuses til Laliourers for 

 Permanent .Service ... 



Calcium Cjanamide and 

 Nitrate of Lime, 

 Trials with 



Cotton Notes : — 



Bacterial Disease of Cot- 

 ton 



The Coming Cotton-Grow- 

 ing Seas( m 



West Indian Cotton ... 



Klectrical IMscliarges. 



Ett'ect of on Plants ... 



Forestrj- in New Zealand 



Fnwls, The Caponizing of. 



Fungi in Kelatiou to Agri- 

 culture, The 



Fungus Notes : — 



The Chief Groups of 

 Fungi, Part VTI ... 



Page. 



! 16'.» 

 169 

 175 

 168 



Page. 



169 



166 



1(57 

 IOC 



17.J 

 16!! 

 171 



161 



174 



j Gleanings ... 172 



Insect Notes : — 



The Black ^cale and its 

 Parasite 170 



Leeward Islands Agricul- 

 tural Department, The l(i!t 



Lemon Cultivation in Italy HU 



Market Reports 176 



Manganese Salts, Action 

 of, on Growing 

 Plants, The 169 



Notes and Comments ... 168 

 Prickly Pear, Destruction 



of the, 17:i 



Putilications nf the Imper- 

 ial De]i(irtment of 



Agriculture 168 



KubI.erTree. The Tonkin 16.5 

 Students' Corner l~'-'' 



Sug;ir-cane, Influence of 



" StructureouMill Work 162 

 Trees, An Account of si:>uie 



U.seful 171 



Weeds, U.ses nf 16a 



The P'uniri in Relation to 

 Agriculture. 



UCH misapprensioa has existed for many 

 years, in the world of agriculture, with re- 

 gard to the true significance of the term 

 Fungus. In the early days, when the results of abstract 

 biological science were first employed in connexion with 

 practical agriculture from an economic .standpoint, there 

 was often uncertainty, on the part of those in receipt 

 of advice, as to the place of fungi among living beings. 



Thus the term came to have a somewhat loose signific-' 

 ance, as is naturally the case when a word is employed 

 commonly in one more or less specialized relation. It 

 is easy to understand, for example, the difficulty of realiz- 

 ing that the fungus causing root disease of sugar-cane, 

 is actually a relative of the grey fungus so commonly 

 found on the parts of dead trees. 



The fungi form a subdivision of the plant king- 

 dom. The group consists of several thousand species 

 of plants, which differ enormously in size, structure and 

 complexity. They are grouped together for several 

 reasons, as for example, the similarity of their vegeta- 

 tive parts, the fact that they are all reproduced by 

 means of spores, and that all of them, without exception, 

 have entirely lost the power of forming chlorophyll — 

 the green colouring matter which occurs in all other 

 plants, with but few exceptions, and without which 

 the plant is unable to elaborate its own food-supply 

 from the carbon dioxide and oxygen contained in the air. 

 For this reason, the fungi may be looked upon as 

 a degenerate group of plants, that is, when regarded 

 from the standpoint of the main path of evolution; in 

 their own line, however, they have attained very con- 

 siderable complexity in their reproductive arrangements, 

 and also show many and varied fortns of adaptation to 

 the manner of life which they have been driven by 

 different circumstances to adopt. Members of this 

 large assemblage of plants may be found living 

 under the most various circumstances of temperature 

 and moisture, and with widely different sources of food- 

 supply. 



It will now be apparent that a term which is applic- 

 able to so many and so various forms of plant life can 

 hardly be expected to possess in reality the narrow 

 significance indicated in the opening paragraph. 



