ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



I. — The Coffee Bug and Coffee Mildeiv. 



The following extracts are from an official report on the state 

 of Ceylon, communicated to the Society by Earl Grey. Tliey 

 show the existence on that island of two formidable enemies to 

 gardeners : the one a scale insect, the other a mildew plant, 

 which may possibly visit our shores ; fragments of the plant, or 

 of an allied species, having been already detected in this country, 

 as is stated by the Rev. Mr. Berkeley, in the valuable report 

 which lie has contributed upon the subject (see p. 7). 



Extracts f I om a Report by George Gardner, Esq., on the Coffee 

 Blight of Ceylon, addressed to the Secretary to Government. 



<« Sir, " Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradenia, July 4, 1848. 



"Agreeably to the instructions contained in your letter to me 

 of the 12th ultimo, I have the honour to inform you that I have 

 visited the coffee districts therein mentioned, and collected such, 

 information as I have been able regarding the nature, history, 

 and effects of the ' brown scale,' or ' bug,' which for some years 

 past has been infesting the coffee estates of the central province ; 

 and now beg leave to lay before you, for the information of his 

 Excellency the Governor, the following report : — 



" As it would be impossible to understand thoroughly the 

 effects which the insect produces, without having a knowledge of 

 its structure and functions, I shall, in the first instance, detail 

 these, at least so much of them as I have been able to determine. 



" The first thing that attracts one's attention on looking at a 

 coffee-tree which has for some time been infested with the ' bug,' 

 is the number of brownish-coloured wart-like bodies that stud 

 the young shoots, and occasionally the margins of the under 

 side of the leaves. Each of these warts or scales is a trans- 

 formed female ' bug,' containing a large number of eggs which 

 are hatched within it. When the young ones come out from 

 their nest they run about over the plant, looking very much like 

 small woodlice, and at this period of their lives there is no dis- 

 tinction between the male and the female. 



" Shortly after being hatched the males generally seek the 

 under side of the leaves, while the females prefer the young 

 shoots as a place of abode. In these localities they attach them- 



VOL. IV. B 



