403 



terrors for these pests. We once caught about a score and put 

 them into a box with nothing but " Beetle-cute " to feed upon, but 

 they lived happily enough until they grew so hungry that they 

 began to devour each other. We have caught as many as 4 00 in 

 one night in the palm house, and as they appear to be vegetarians 

 as a rule and to eat a great deal of food it will be seen how 

 troublesome they may become in large plant houses. In the 

 smaller houses they give less trouble, because they can be more 

 easily kept down. They breed very rapidly and the young start 

 foraging very early. 



Fresh importations of cockroaches sometimes accompany packages 

 of plants, &c, from tropical countries ; it is probable, however, that 

 they get into the packages during transit, as they are known to 

 infest the steamers which ply between the tropics and this 

 country. They are also numerous in some warehouses. 



Although not known to be mischievous, but with habits that 

 justify suspicion, a fourth species, Leucophaea surinamensi*, hen* 

 figured, infests the cocoa-nut fibre beds in the tropical propagating 

 houses, where it is sometimes very abundant. It buries itself in 

 the loose fibre with astonishing facility, disappearing with diver- 

 like action. The only method we have tried for its destruction is 

 hand-catching. 



Explanation op the Plate. 



All the figures are natural size. 



Fig. 1, Nauphoeta brazzae, Bolivar. 

 Fig. 2. Nauphoeta cinerea, Oliv. 

 Fig. 3. Blatta orientalis, Linn. 

 Fig. 4. Leucophaea surinamensis, Linn. 



LXII.-MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



Mr. Crawford Noble has been appointed by the Secretary of 



State for the Colonies, on the recommendation °* >. eW ' ^f ^ 

 Forest Officer in Cyprus. Mr. Noble holds the Dip oma m Agri- 

 culture of the University of Aberdeen, and has studied * owstrj 

 in the French Ecole Nationale des Eaux et Forets at Nancy. 



Mr. William Wright Smith, M.A., Assistant to the trofe** 



of Botany in the University of ^; b "^. B1 ^Vo^ncilJnT. 

 appointed by the Secretary of State for India in J*™ ^ ^ 

 recommendation of Kew, Curator of the Herbarium of the Koya 

 Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, in succession to Capt. A. T. Gage, 



ME. WILLIAM JAMES DOWN, a ^^'^JXyT^e- 



of the Royal Botanic Gardens, has been "P^J^f^f K ew, 

 tary of State for the Colonies, on the ^^°°S of the Hope 

 Agricultural Instructor and Assistant Superintendent or me P 



Gardens and Experiment Station, Jamaica. 



