230 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
fungous diseases constitute a grave source of danger. In these 
hot, damp, tropical climates fungi can increase with terrible 
rapidity, as was shown when the disease caused by Hemeleta 
vastatrix almost entirely destroyed the Ceylon coffee plantations 
about thirty years ago, and utterly ruined that profitable industry. 
The Mergui plantations have, of course, not been exempt 
from insect and fungous attacks; and in 1906 it was found that 
at least three different kinds of white ants (Zermites) were 
attacking the trees, first enclosing the trunk in a thick crust of 
earth, and then eating through weak spots into the heart of the 
tree. Two of these were recognised as 7. Gestroi and T. 
annamensis, but the other specimens have not yet been identified, 
nor is their life-history known. Similar attacks by white ants 
had previously been reported from Borneo, Singapore, and the 
Malay States; and it is to be feared that these Zermites may 
become dangerous pests in the rubber plantations throughout 
the Indo-Malayan region. 
Elsewhere, what appears almost certain to be a fungous disease 
has recently become noticeable in the Deodar plantations made 
in the Kulu district of the Punjab Himalayan tracts. Cultural 
operations for artificial reproduction of Deodar were begun 
in Kulu about 1875, when four reserves were constituted and 
a plantation was made in each, the planting being done in lines 
1o feet apart. All four plantations are on the bank of the 
river Blu, on almost level ground full of big boulders. Their 
joint area is 189 acres, and they are now more or less fully 
stocked, with blanks here and there. ‘The total cost on these 
plantations has been up to date about £630, or £3, 6s. 8d. 
per acre, which is somewhat high. ‘The trees now girth 3 to 4 
feet, and most of the plantations require thinning. ‘They would 
be of considerable value had not fungous disease sprung up 
in two of the above forests, from which all the trees are now 
dying. It appears first in the upper part of the tree, where 
the top leaves begin to thin out, until the top dies; then it 
travels downwards until the tree dies altogether. In 1903 this 
disease was limited to one of the forests (Sial Bihal Reserve), in 
which a few of the trees were infected. But by 1906 the whole 
of this forest was infected, and the disease had spread into 
Dana Bihal Reserve, the infected trees being scattered over the 
whole area, no healthy compact groups being now left. It was 
at first thought that as the trees were growing on the river banks 
