238 
Among other insects which injure the fruits are species of Earias 
and Helopeltis. Quantities of the young fruits are destroyed by 
flying foxes. 
The beetle Batocera hector bores into the trunks and sometimes 
kills young trees. hen a tree attacked by it is found, the holes 
should be filled with benzine and stopped with clay. 
Great damage is done to the Kapok plantations in Java b 
various kinds of mistletoe (Loranthaceae), but nothing is yet known 
as to the extent to which the Kapok trees are affected by these para- 
sites in Africa. 
Dr. Ulbrich’s paper concludes with a systematic account of the 
African Kapok-yielding species. He distinguishes two main varieties 
of Ceiba pentandra: var. clausa, in which the fruits do not open 
until after they have fallen, and the prickles on the trunk are acute ; 
and var. dehiscens, in which the fruits open while still on the tree, 
and the prickles of the trunk are rather obtuse. Both these 
varieties have forms with snowy white wool and with grey wool. 
rT; Be 8. 
The Solomon Islands Guada Bean.—Under the above heading a 
somewhat exaggerated note, culled from a New South Wales 
Agricultural Paper, recently appeared in “The Vegetarian 
Messenger and Health Review.” From the description given of 
the plant and from several sampies of seeds received for determina- 
tion there is little doubt that the Common Snake Gourd, T'richo- 
santhes anguina is the plant in question. This species is a scandent 
annual with an angled stem, much cultivated in the warmer parts of 
Asia for its fruit which is universally eaten by the natives in their 
stews and curries. 
According to Duthie and Fuller in “ Field and Garden Crops of 
the North West Provinces and Oudh,” this plant in all probability 
had its origin either in India or in the Indian Archipelago. It has 
never been found in a wild state, unless it be considered, as has been 
suggested, to represent the cultivated state of T'richosanthes cucu- 
merina, & common plant extending throughout India to Nerth 
Australia. 
