710 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



During the regular procedure of baggage inspection hy the United 

 States Customs authorities, the writer was called by Customs Inspector 

 Graham to pass upon several lots of Algoroba beans among a number 

 of child's toys in a small telescope bag. These beans, not being a host 

 of the fruit fly, and showing no sign of insect infestation, were passed, 

 and the .passenger was asked whether she had anything more in the 

 way of seeds or fruit. She replied that her husband had in his pocket 

 five seeds of the "Hypocrite tree," grown in a churchyard in Hono- 

 lulu. She also stated that they contained no insects, as her little 

 daughter had played with them in the cabin during the voyage from 

 Honolulu, and had there been any maggots or other insects in them 

 they would most certainly have been discovered ; that the beauty of the 

 tree so impressed her, she wished to grow some like it, and was taking 

 the seeds to southern California to be planted. 



Upon examination, the seeds proved to be the "Kamani nut" or 

 "tropical almond" {Terminalia cattapa), a hard nut, very like in form 

 to an almond (Fig. 380), but slightly larger, with a thin, fibrous cover- 

 ing, and one of the favorite hosts of the fruit fly. On turning back 

 the covering of one of the nuts there were disclosed to view eleven 

 Mediterranean fruit fly maggots, subsisting on what appeared to be 

 scarcely enough food for one. 



Had not these seeds received the rigid inspection given everything 

 from all localities where fruit fly exists, they would undoubtedly have 

 been planted in southern California, and since the fruit fly, when 

 possible, enters the ground to pupate, nothing — -had it been carefully 

 planned — could have been so conducive to the establishing in Cali- 

 fornia of the most dreaded and worst known insect pest of fruit and 

 vegetables in the M'Orld today; an insect that has the widest range of 

 host fruits of any known, and whose presence in a fruit growing region 

 means devastation and ruin. 



COUNTY HORTICULTURAL COMMISSIONERS. 



By Frederick Maskew^ Chief Deputy Quamntine Offlcer. 



The central quarantine office is mainly concerned with the County 

 Horticultural Commissioners in their capacity as State Quarantine 

 guardians, but the experience of half a life time, spent in the orchards 

 and fields of California — most of the same working in conjunction with 

 the county officials upon local problems — created a lasting feeling of 

 interest and fellowship in all that pertains to the success of their sev- 

 eral functions. It is with much pleasure that we have read the press 

 comments of the exhibits made by the Horticultural Commissioners at 

 the county fairs that have recently been held in different parts of 

 this State. 



We have long held, and often set forth, that an active working 

 liorticultural commissioner was one of the best assets any county could 

 possess, and in our opinion, an annual fair where the most progressive 

 of its citizens are striving to advance the interests of the county, is one 

 good place at Avhich to demonstrate the same, and with an energetic 



