IV 



CLOVES 175 



usually straight and not very long, and not choked up 

 with excreta, as in the tunnels of longicorn beetles and 

 such insects, or some insecticide might be injected into 

 the burrows, but this is less easy. 



Small boughs bored may be cut off. The adult 

 insect has never been identified, but is undoubtedly 

 some species of moth. 



In Zanzibar, a leaf -eating caterpillar is recorded, 

 which attacks the trees in the dry weather and denudes 

 the tree of its leaves. The tree, however, is said to 

 recover during the rains. The termites are also said to 

 attack the roots occasionally (Consular Report, 1892, 

 p. 266). No further details, however, are given. 



I have no record of termites attacking clove trees in 

 the East Indies. A case of the sudden death of a 

 clove tree from termites once referred to me proved to 

 have been due to the attacks of a root fungus, the 

 termites having merely commenced to destroy the 

 already dead parts of the tree. 



Blights. I find a species of Mytilaspis attacking 

 the stems and the leaves of young plants, later causing 

 distortion of them. It is a small, white, mussel- 

 shaped coccid, which attacks many plants, especially 

 seedlings, and is described elsewhere in this work. 



Root Fungus. In the Botanic Gardens in Malacca, 

 in 1894, a fine young clove tree suddenly died when just 

 coming into fruit. This was supposed to be due to the 

 attacks of termites, as there was a great mass of galleries 

 thrown up at the base of the tree, but on digging away 

 the soil it was discovered that the whole of the bark 

 above the roots was black and putrid, and some of the 

 larger roots covered with a white mildew. The tree 

 must have been attacked some time previously by this 

 fungus, only dying when the destruction was absolutely 

 complete. This fungus was never identified. It prob- 

 ably spread underground, as these parasites often do, 

 as a number of trees were destroyed. 



In the case of a root-fungus like this appearing on 

 an estate, the trees should be at once destroyed and 



