ENEMIES. I2Q 



the young in the first stage of existence ; the style 

 is the mouth, but the rest of the body is a perfect 

 globule without any appendages whatever. These 

 latter, however, gradually break forth, and when 

 the animalcule is furnished with all it requires, it 

 lets go its hold." 



Larva of many lepidopterous insects also do 

 much harm, especially in some South American 

 and West Indian districts. 



FUNGI. 



All these drags on the planter's prosperity, how- 

 ever, sink into insignificance by the side of a minute 

 and consequently intangible fungus. The leaf 

 disease (the Hemileia vastatrix) made its appear- 

 ance in Ceylon in 1870. The effect was felt when 

 the very next crop came to be gathered. But for 

 some time to come the disease only appeared every 

 other year, and there were alternate seasons of good 

 years and bad. At first every effort was made to 

 fight it. Quacks and professors were alike con- 

 sulted ; but the experts from Kew Gardens were 

 able to do as little as Mr. Eugene Schrottky from 

 Bombay. In 1856, when the Coffee plants in Ceylon 

 may be said to have been in their pristine vigour, 

 the average crop of berries per acre was 5 cwts. ; 

 latterly, owing to the ravages of the disease, it is only 

 2i cwts. ; that is, the profitable margin of the crop 

 has disappeared. There is now, of course, much 

 more land under Coffee than there was in 1856. If 



