— I901-1902.] Tea: Its Cultivation, &c. 267 
_ below the Pekoe or Souchong leaves, and eat perhaps half-way 
_ inor more. In a day or so the shoot has withered and fallen 
off. This insect is sometimes confounded with the lady- 
bird, which is quite distinct. The colours are different; the 
elytra of the ladybird are smooth; and it is carnivorous, 
while the orange beetle is a vegetable eater. The chief food 
of the ladybird is the black aphis found on the leaves. 
Caterpillars and Cocoons.—The caterpillars eat the leaves 
_ and bark, but can be easily caught and destroyed before much 
harm is done. One of the specimens seems to be the faggot 
worm, and the other the bag worm. The faggot worm nips off 
_ short lengths of twigs and fastens these parallel to one another. 
In Assam these cases average from 14 to 3 inches long and 4 
_ to 1 inch diameter. The entrance to the case is closed by a 
little lid hinged at the top. The bag worm makes its case of 
one or two leaves fixed down for their whole length to the 
case. It has no lid such as the faggot worm has. 
Thread blight (Stilbum nanum, Massee).—lIn the early part 
of the season this blight can be seen on the lower part of the 
stem. The name is very descriptive—a soft white woolly 
_ thread lightly attached to the bark. Generally the thread is 
to be seen on the branches. On the young twigs it forms 
slight thickenings at the joints, from which offshoots go to the 
leaves. On reaching the leaf, the fungus follows the course of 
the midrib, from which it develops a soft felted layer, covering 
the whole of the under side of the leaf. The leaves fade and 
gradually become brown, slowly bending over till they touch 
the stem. They then gradually drop off, and as the thread 
_ forces its way to the buds, the vitality of the twig is slowly 
but surely extinguished. 
From a Return to the House of Commons (Aug. 1900) 
relating to tea and coffee, some interesting information relative 
to our third section—viz., the extent of the tea industry— 
can be obtained. Only four countries produce tea on a large 
_ seale. These are China, Japan, British India, and Ceylon. 
| Their exports were in 1899, China 217,467,000 lb.; British 
| India, 159,806,000 lb.; Ceylon, 129,662,000 lb.; and Japan 
_ for 1898 (no figures being given for 1899), 61,532,000 lb. 
_ China shows a very considerable decrease in the amount of 
