188 

 700. -PURPLE LEAF CANES. 



The following letter has been received from an esteemed corres- 

 pondent Professor Kobus affording further information on purple 



leaf canes : — 



" Pasoeroean, Java, 



28th December, 1904. 



J. H. Hart, Esq., F.L.S., 



Superintendent, Botanical Department, Trinidad. 



Dear Sir, 



In No. 44 of your Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information you 

 ask informations about purple leaf canes. In the large collections of 

 cane varieties, that existed here ten years ago and where nearly 500 

 varieties from every part of the world were brought together (after 

 a very careful revision they were reduced to 199), I remember 

 3 varieties with purple leaves. Two were original from Java, one 

 slender cane with dark purple leaves and a thicker one with bright 

 purple leaves. Both canes are cultivated in Javanese gardens as 

 a remedy against certain diseases ; as sugar producers they were of 

 no value. One variety was sent from one of the Polynesia Islands, 

 if I remember well from Hawaii. Among the seedling canes raised 

 by Mr. Moquette, once a purple leaf cane was remarked. Purple 

 leaves seem therefore a mutation, that is not very rare. 



I remain, dear Sir, 



Yours sincerely, 



J. D. KOBUS." 



701.-A FREAK BANANA. 



At the Agricultural Exhibition held in February at Port-of- 

 Spain, there was exhibited a banana, showing both red and the ordinary 

 yellow forms of fruit (fingers) on the one stem ; one side of the 

 bunch being quite a dark red, while the other was of the normal 

 colour. The coloration extended from the fruit stalk along one side 

 only, the same side of the bunch being coloured, while in some of 

 the fruits (fingers) which appeared on the line which divided the 

 two colours one side was red while the other was normal, but on the 

 whole the line of colour was defined. The whole may, it is believed, 

 be put on record as a sport or variation which may be useful evidence 

 of the causes which have produced the red and various other varieties 

 of the banana. 



It is quite probable that similar instances may have been 

 witnessed, and that the occurrence is not singular or unique, but 

 it is the first that has been brought to the notice of the Botanical 

 Department in this Island. 



702. -A RECORD OF WORK IN AGRICULTURAL 

 INSTRUCTION, FOR 1903-4. 



The Annual Departmental Report for the year ended 31st March. 

 1904 contained the following remarks on Agricultural Instruction 



