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seem so favorable that despite the pi-esence of this stem dis- 

 ease, the vine continues to grow vigorously and rapidly until 

 the disease breaks through the stem, when the entire plant 

 succumbs. During a recent trip to London, Mr. Woods took 

 some of the diseased stems over to Massee, who determined 

 the trouble as identical with the one described from the 

 Seychelles. The cuttings for all of the Vanilla grown in Kona 

 were originally imported by Mr. Edwards from Fiji. Before 

 starting Vanilla in Kona, Mr. Edwards had spent some two or 

 three months on the Fiji Vanilla plantations, and according to 

 his statement, has observed no disease existing there upon the 

 vines. Had the Seychelles fungus been present there, he 

 claims he should have recognized it without difficulty. He 

 further claims that Massee 's identification of the trouble pre- 

 vailing in Mr. "Wood's vines is wrong, as he is quite familiar 

 with the manifestations of the Seychelles disease and does not 

 recognize it upon the Kona vines. Mr. L. Lewton-Brain, a 

 pathologist of the H. S. P. A. Experiment Station, who is 

 familiar with Vanilla diseases in the British West Indies, and 

 who kindly examined some of the diseased Kona vines, sup- 

 ports Mr. Edwards in his conviction that the brown stain of 

 the stem, while a fungus disease, is not identical with C. va- 

 nillae. The writer's familiarity with the natural appearance 

 of Vanilla vines and leaves is not sufficient authoritatively 

 either to support or oppose Mr. Edwards' apprehensions con- 

 cerning the prospects of Vanila in Kona. He, 

 however, is inclined to regard them rather exag- 

 gerated. Perhaps because of his u^ifortunate ex- 

 perience with fungus diseases upon Coffee and Va- 

 nilla in former years, and possibly also prejudiced by the 

 alarmist reports of some of his neighbors and by occasional 

 defective Vanilla beans produced on his estate, Mr. Edwards 

 has since his recent return from a visit to the Coast bee's! 

 scrutinizing vegetation much more minutely than he probably 

 ever did before. As a result of this scrutinj^ he naturally finds 

 very few perfect leaves on any plant. Those of us who have 

 kept an observant eye upon life in nature are aware that owing 

 to the thousand and one vicissitudes through which every por- 

 tion of a plant and animal has to go b'^fore its mission is com- 



