CARDAMOMS 345 



shoots and stems must be pulled off, but this does not 

 amount to a very large percentage. 



It would of course be much easier to cut the racemes 

 off', and clip the ripe fruits off afterwards, but by this 

 means a great deal is wasted, as the unripe fruit on the 

 raceme has to be thrown away. 



A good coolie accustomed to the work can pick from 

 12 to 15 Ibs. of fruit a day, but 8 to 10 Ibs. is the average 

 picking. 



PESTS 



The Cardamom Butterfly (Lampides elpis, Godart). 

 A complete account of this the worst pest of the 

 cardamom plant is given in Indian Museum Notes, vol. 

 i. p. 11, from observations made by Mr. T. C. Owen 

 in the notes on cardamom cultivation, and from letters 

 by Mr. E. Green. 



Mr. Owen writes : 



Of the enemies which attack cardamoms the most serious is 

 an insect which bores a circular hole in the capsules, and clears 

 out the inside. Young plantations seem more liable to this pest 

 than older ones. In the former case as much as 80 to 90 per 

 cent will sometimes be attacked and destroyed in this way : 

 proximity to patana seems also the cause of increased liability 

 to these attacks. Applications of lime, wood ash, or anything 

 of a like nature are said to be beneficial. 



Mr. Owen was unable to discover what the insect 

 was that caused the damage, but Mr. Green succeeded 

 in finding an adult larva in one capsule, and bred it out 

 into the beautiful little blue butterfly, Lampides elpis, 

 a very common insect over the Indo-Malayan region, 

 occurring in India, Ceylon, Burma, the Malay Peninsula 

 and Islands. 



The male butterfly is about 1| in. across the wings, 

 of a pale metallic azure blue on the upper side, with a 

 narrow black border to both wings ; the hind wings 

 have sometimes a series of black marginal spots, and 

 there is always a short, black tail with a white tip near 

 the anal extremity. 



