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Ti root and Peon d'Incle, used as supports to the Vanilla 

 vines, badly infested with a species of red spider. Taro 

 leaves were more or less infested with a species of aphis or 

 plant lice. Citrus plants had the usual retinue of scale in- 

 sects, with the purple scale at the head of the list. The coffee 

 scale locally occurs also in considerable numbers, and finally 

 the ubiquitous Siphanta or Torpedo bug. This last, while 

 much less numerous than I saw it there in June, and certainly 

 so than reported in August and September, was still present 

 in excessive numbers upon every variety of plant. Aside from 

 these insects there was ample evidence all around of injury 

 by fungus diseases to a greater or lesser extent. Turning to 

 Vanilla, all portions of the plant, including leaves, vines and 

 pods, show quite a variety of mal-formation and discoloration. 

 Particularly noticeable because of its abundance was a pecu- 

 liar specking upon the leaves, even those that have apparently 

 evolved but the previous day. At first glance these specks 

 would lead one to suspect as being the result of an insect 

 puncture, yet no insect was observed in the act of producing 

 one, although vines were examined both during the day and 

 by lamp light at night. The specks are brownish in color 

 and surrounded by a translucent ring, being concave in some 

 instances and convex in others. As many as thirty of them 

 were counted upon a single Vanilla leaf. Hastily examined 

 under the microscope, Dr. Cobb has found these specks usually 

 located concentric with spiracles or breathing pores of leaves, 

 which he suggested would indicate injury by microbes. He 

 could, however, make no definite statement as to the nature of 

 the parasite. In no instance was this speck observed to ex- 

 tend its area and its effect upon the vine is not apparent. 

 All the other apparent defects in the Vanilla vines are evi- 

 dently of a pathological or physiological nature, not attribut- 

 able to insect work. Not being a specialist in fungus diseases 

 my usefulness to Vanilla ceased at this point. As Massee 

 states in his paper in the "Kew Bulletin," there are probably 

 a number of diseases affecting Vanilla and nothing short of a 

 study in the field by a plant pathologist will determine their 

 nature and the effective remedies against them. On general 

 principles I advised the Vanilla growers of Kona, and this 



