76 



The liigli percentage of good-sized nuts on tlie yoting planta- 

 tions at Ne\ is is of both general and commercial interest aiid 

 affords ample justification for the great trouble wliicli was takes, 

 in selecting the original seed nuts in Jamaica and elsewhere. As 



to the selection of the seed Mr. .Crum-Ewmg writes : 



I do not 



understand Simmonds' advice , to take seed nuts from clusters 

 containing few fruits — on a prolific tree there should be no Sucn 

 clusters. I. quite agree with: you that seed' nuts should be taken 

 from trees whose good character is well marked. It appears to me 

 that the pedigree of a cocoaiiut tree is of tlie utmost importance. 

 Even if I had only one or two years' experience of a tree, and it 

 showed the same characteristics, for which its parent, and yet 

 again its grand-parent had been selected, I would rather use the 

 .seed froni that tree than take Siminonds' advice to choose one 

 picked from a sparsely furnished cluster grown, on a tree past the 

 middle age, of whose parentage there is no record.'^ . ' 



The nuts which are now being planted on Mr. Crum-Ewing^s 

 land in jS'evis and in Demerara a^e taken from the young trees 

 planted in Kevis in 190T. ' As already mentioned, the germination 

 ■])ercentage of the nuts sent from Ne^is to Demerara in July, 1913, 

 was 89 per cent., which certainly refutes the statement made by 

 Siramonds that nuts from young trees ''rot away at the eye.'* 

 Mr. Crum-Ewing informs us that he is planting nothing but his 

 own ^^evis seed both in the Island and inDemerara, and adds : — ''I 

 ieel justified in so doing, knowing the great care with which the 

 seed is selected, the minute observation to which the individual 

 trees have been subjected, the absence of disease in the grove and 

 m'the Island, and the good stock from which the parents and 

 f^rand-parents were derived.' ' ' * 



Theae experitriontal plantings should, in the course of a few 

 ears, enable a proper.estimation to be'made of Simmonds' state- 

 ments, but in the light of the pra6tical experience already gained, 



- ■ - unlikely that his recommendations will receive 

 »nppoit. , : . 



V 



it seems LLgh]\ 



VII 



^ / 



DIAGNOSES AFRICANAE: LXIII 



[B 



i t 



^.Wr?^'''''^ ' ?• ^T9'M^' Hoelist. et Steiid, affine, «e(i foliis 

 mmonbus angustionbusque iiUdulatis, inflorescentiis brevioribus, 

 t^oroUis majonbiis differt. • i ' . 



2^rcm W f /''^^^"T'"^^'^ gradatim;angustata usque ad 

 rior'^ierp^tv ^ ^"V >*.^,' saepissime angustJora, pagina supe- 



i^^!Zl.ltT ''/*5 '* ^"^^^^ fateralibus promincntibus 

 Ssi cSc" 9 ? ^Moresc^nfia termiaalis, e cymis 3-5 sub 



^m. longm. <^W?aet?ibti8 -cyHndncus, medio 



