16 Journal of the Department of Agriculture. 



gangers are the most numerous in Graaff-Reinet district, where up to 

 26th November 132 swarms were reported to have been destroyed. 

 The outbreaks in Willowmore district are fortunately less serious than 

 was at first supposed when a kind of " stinksprinkhaau," occurring 

 extensively in Baviaanskloof, was mistaken for the locust. Reports 

 of outbreaks in central districts of the Orange Free State have also 

 been found to be based on stinksprinkhane, insects which in all 

 stages are strikingly coloured and quite unlike the locust to any one 

 at all familiar with it. The stinksprinkhane hoppers are black with 

 bright yellow markings. At Rustenburg, Transvaal, a reported out- 

 break was found to be due to a remarkable abundance of a grass- 

 hopper voetg'anger so closely resembling the genuine locust voet- 

 ganger that experienced locust officers at first sight of a specimen 

 mistook it for the latter insect ; no similar case has ever before come 

 to the notice of t])e Division. 



BOTANY. 



During the month Mr. Melle toured the Cape Province, obtaining 

 information about lucerne growing. He visited the Sundays River 

 Settlement at Addo, Oudtshoorn, and Robertson. In the valley of 

 the Sundays River Settlement he was much impressed with the vast 

 possibilities for lucerne growing. In the Oudtshoorn district he 

 considers Mr. Edmeade's farm, where the g-rowing of lucerne is under- 

 taken on scientific lines, an object lesson to all growers. At Robertson 

 Mr. Melle foiind that much lucerne land had gone out of cultivation 

 and that cereals and fruit trees had taken its place. 



Miss A. M. Bottomley, B.A., relieved Dr. v. d. i3ijl at 

 Durban during part of the month and undertook the inspec- 

 tion of potatoes imported into the T'nion on the mail 

 boats. She found these infected in varying degrees with 

 RhizoctoTna, Actinomyces, Cliromogenus (scab), and Fusnriinn. 

 Seed potatoes, chiefly the varieties " Up-to-Date " and 

 " Early Rose," especially those from France, were for the most 

 part in excellent conditions. Potatoes imported from British East 

 Africa for eating purposes were in a disgraceful condition — about 60 

 per cent, being absolutely rotten. Miss Bottomley attributed this 

 to the fact that they were packed in sacks and not in cases, and were 

 unsuitably stored on the boats. 



National Herbarium. — Dr. Phillips is revising the group of 

 plants known as the Red Pear, Thorn Pear, etc. (Scolopia) ; Miss 

 Davison is busy on the descriptions of the various species of Cape 

 " Saffrons " (Elaeondendron spp.) ; Miss Verdoorn is completing her 

 account of the native " Ironwoods " (Olea spp.); and Miss Hofmeyr 

 is studying the genus Cyclopia, which is the source of many of the 

 commercial bush-teas; she hns also completed an account of the so- 

 called Knysna and Mountain Hard Pears (OJinia spp.), and has 

 established the fact that three species occur in South Africa. 

 Hitherto only two species were known to foresters. 



Mr. Putterill, Government Mycologist at Capetown, furnishes 

 the following notes on plant diseases in the Western Province: — 



Pla7it I7i.spectiu7i at Capetown Docks.— This Division and that of 

 Entomology are working in active co-operation. Potatoes come in 



