PLANT INTRODUCTION NOTES. 21 



that foreign varieties were better than their own. introduced suckers 

 of the Ceylon and other larger fruited sorts for trial. These intro- 

 ductions have produced do effect upon the cultivation of this native 

 sort, I am informed, and the "common pine" is -till the great market 

 variety of South Africa. 



This Natal variety is so remarkable that suckers for introduction 

 into America would have been secured had not many of the fruits 

 seen in the markets and on the hotel tahlcs been affected with what 

 appear- to he a disease; and although the contagious character of this 

 malady or even its determination as of fungus or bacterial origin could 

 nothedecided.it was deemed best to take no chances of introducing 

 it into our pineapple plantation.-. 



The fruits affected by this disease have generally soft -pots on them 

 near the base, which, when cut into, are found to reach some distance 



into the flesh. The small cavities characteristic of tl uter part of 



the pine are in these affected areas of a peculiar white color. This 

 appearance resembles somewhat that produced by a felt of very tine 

 fungous mycelium, but with a high-power hand lens no mycelial fila- 

 ments could he detected. The same white color is also often produced 

 in fruit flesh by the drying out of the juicy cells, and I am inclined to 

 think that empty air-filled cells are the cause of the snowy-white 

 appearance in this ease. The flesh about the diseased areas is soft and 

 juicy, hut in none of the fruits examined was there any dark discolora- 

 tion such as characterizes the pineapple disease described from Queens- 

 land and which is reported to be caused by the conidial, Fusarium-like 

 form of some Ascomycete. This Natal malady does not agree with the 

 description of the Queensland disease, and, if it proves to be a fungous 

 disease at all, will probably be found to be caused by some new species 

 of fungus. 



A pine which is probably identical with this Natal variety is grown 

 extensively in the eastern provinces of Cape Colony. It is there culti- 

 vated on the hillsides at a considerable altitude and not on the level 

 plains, and it is grown in such quantities that the markets everywhere 

 are overstocked with it. Pineapples are the cheapest fruit in South 

 Africa. 



Some of these eastern province pineapples were sent for by the 

 Cape department of agriculture in order that we might compare 

 them with the Natal variety. These, although not quite so luscious 

 as those eaten in Natal, were evidently the same sort, and the very 

 slight inferiority in flavor might be easily explained by the fact that 

 the eastern-province fruits were picked before becoming quite ripe in 

 order to ship well, while the Natal ones came more directly from the 

 fields. 



Through the department of agriculture a number of suckers of this 

 eastern-province pineapple were ordered after it was ascertained that 



