169 
These records support the view that the fungus may be endemic 
in Africa and may not necessarily have been introduced with im- 
ported coffee. 
With regard to British East Africa Hemileia was first recorded 
in 1904 on coffee leaves from Buru* where coffee cultivation was 
first started in 1895. The disease is now widely spread in the 
Protectorate and in German East Africa and Uganda, but as yet 
there is no record of its occurrence in Nebula G or in ‘any part of 
the West Coast of Africa. 
Coffee cultivated in plantations and the so-called ‘ wild coffee’ 
are equally attacked by Hemileia vastatrix. The indigenous or wild 
coffee trees, according to the Report of the Director of Agriculture, 
“are scattered throughout the Buganda Kingdom in small lots of 
about 5 to 10 trees ges receive practically no attention beyond 
picking the fruit when 
He adds that “ all the indigenous coffee, as far as can be ascer- 
tained, is covered with H. vastat 
appears that though so * ata attacked by the disease the 
ative Fees are not seriously affected by it, a fact which lends further 
support to the view that we may be concerned with an endemic 
rather than with an introduced disease. 
With regard to this so-called ‘ wild coffee’ of Eastern Africa a 
good deal of confusion has arisen since it has been wrongly assumed, 
artly in connection with the publication of Hennings’ note of the 
occurrence of Hemileia Woodii on leaves of Coffea Ibo, that the wild 
or native coffee of Uganda should be referred to that species. 
The history of the coffees grown in Uganda is as follows :— 
The occurrence of coffee in Uganda is first mentioned by Speke 
‘“*M’wanee ” is “cultivated in considerable quantities on and about 
the equator. ee trees grow 10-12 ft. high, their Hideiien 
Apion Expedition p..179, oe ost nearly every native beets 
plantation has its solitary coffee t 
He also expresses the opinion es ‘; 20) that the coffee plants of the 
banana groves of Bukoba, on the German East African er of 
Uganda appear to be indigenous, at least not introduced by mien 
rabs or Europeans. The coffee referred to in this paragraph 
undoubtedly the “* Bukoba” coffee which was later Seachbal’ by by 
Froehner as Coffea arabica var. Stuhlmannii, and which, from the 
examination of the type east rey: to Kew by Prof. E ler, appears 
to be little more than a form of robusta, inden. his variety 
was afterwards raised to specific nue by Zimmermann as C. buho- 
ensis. 
According to Sir Harry Johnston, (Uganda Proctectorate vol. i, 
p- 288) the coffee plant “ whether originally introduced or not from 
* Dept. Agric. Leaflet, B. E. Africa, No. 10. Cro Rein Cote aay paaine 
tT Tie virulence of a attack by Hemileia pisesiria in Ce eylon may possibl 
explained on the assumption that the disease was not native to the fs | 
but was introduced to the island from Africa and that the fungus under the new 
conditions rapidly spread and assumed epidemic proportions. 
i Hennings Zeitschr. fiir Trop. Landw. 1897, i, p. 192. 
