482 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



Lightning will as a rule shatter one or two 

 trees badly, and those standing close by will 

 be damaged by the heat to such an extent 

 that they get diseased, their tops rot and they 

 die, their stem being marked with a number 

 of brown spots. 



Now with bud-rot my experience has been 

 to the effect that a healthy tree standing next 

 to a diseased one does not get it. At the 

 plantation I was on at Taviuni the area on 

 which trees became attacked was limited to 

 some six acres. Here a palm showing the 

 disease would be felled ; the next one attacked 

 probably many months later would be 

 found at the other end of the block, then 

 perhaps some tree in the middle would suffer, 

 but I never saw two diseased trees standing- 

 together, there were always some five or six, 

 and generally more, healthy ones between 

 them. The stems of the trees felled never 

 showed the spots found on those killed by 

 lightning. 



Stick-insects (Phasmida). " Extensive 

 damage is frequently done to coco- nuts in some 

 parts of the group by the so-called ' stick- 

 insect,' " writes Mr. E. P. Jepson in his report 

 on Economic Entomology of Fiji, and con- 

 tinues as follows : " These insects belong to the 

 family Phasmidce, are extremely voracious, and 

 will often completely defoliate a tree, leaving 

 only the midribs. Dr. Sharp refers to them as 

 follows : They are all vegetable feeders and 



