COFFEE-LEAF DISEASE (HEMILEIA VASTATRIX, 

 B. ET BR.) IN UGANDA. 



By S. SIMPSON, B.Sc. 

 Director of Agriculture, Uganda. 



WITH A NOTE ON THE PRESENT POSITION 



By W. SMALL, M.A., B.Sc. 

 Botanist to the Department. 



BOTANISTS appear to agree that coffee is indigenous to 

 Abyssinia and the Sudan, and if not actually in Uganda, 

 it must have been introduced a very long time ago, as 

 wild coffee trees (Coffea robusta, Linden) are scattered 

 throughout the Buganda Province in small lots of about 

 five to ten trees, and moreover, the early explorers, Speke 

 and Grant, mentioned its existence. These wild trees 

 receive practically no attention beyond picking the fruit 

 when ripe. 



There can be no doubt that the coffee-leaf disease has 

 been present in the country for many years. Sir George 

 Watt, in his " Commercial Products of India," refers to 

 its existence in the Victoria Nyanza region, whilst 

 Sadenback, in " Einige Beobachtungen und Bemerkungen 

 iiber die durch Hemilcia vastatrix verursachte Blattflecken- 

 Krankheit der Kaffeebaume " (Forstlich-naturw. Zeitsch., 

 iv, 1895) and M. Hennings in Zeitsch. trap. Landwirt- 

 schaft, Der Tropcnpflanzcr, Nos. 5 and 8, 1897, both refer 

 to its existence in this region many years ago. 



Old residents were well acquainted with the disease and 

 called it " native coffee-leaf disease," under the impression 

 that it was not H. vastatrix, B. et Br., and that it had 

 been identified at Kew some years ago as something 

 different. 



When H. vastatrix had been recognized in British 

 East Africa the matter was carefully gone into in this 

 Protectorate, where coffee growing is receiving the 

 serious attention of planters, and all European estates 

 were visited. 



H . vastatrix was discovered in many cases, and always 

 where some indigenous coffee suffering from H. vastatrix 

 was found in the vicinity. A very careful examination 



