336 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



the beginning or middle of January, but occasionally the new 

 flowers may begin to form in December or Januarjr on trees from 

 which last j^ear's fruits have not been collected. 



" If a few trees are planted near villages, but not in regular 

 groves, the betel-nut may fruit when it is only 6 or 7 years of age. 

 In plantations they rarely fruit before the tenth or twelfth year. 

 The trees subsecjuently put out in the plantation (just as the first 

 set begins to flower) do not come into bearing for 20 years. There 

 is no third planting except, as already stated, to fill up vacancies. 

 Land formerly covered with betel-nuts, if re-planted with them, 

 even after a rest of several j^ears, in the form of niandar groves, 

 does not, as a rule, yield until the palms are 20 years old. It will 

 thus be seen that it takes at least 30 years before a betel-nut 

 plantation comes into full bearing. The fruiting life of a tree 

 may be put at from 30 to 50 or 60 jqqxq after maturity, and the 

 total life of the tree might thus be stated at from 60 to 100 years. 



" The soil of the Bengal plantations is the ordinary grey sandy 

 loam on which rice is grown. Occasional^ the plantations are 

 surrounded hj a ditch and wall made of the soil thrown up from 

 the ditch, but this appears to be more intended for protection than 

 for drainage '' (Watt). 



On an average each tree produces two bunches of fruit, some- 

 times three or four. But two good bunches yield as much as three 

 or four inferior ones. The manure used and the rainfall determine 

 the size of the bunches. A good bunch gives 200 to 300 nuts and 

 a specially good one about 400. Unfavourable rain or cloudy 

 weather in April or May causes many of the j^oting fruits to fall off' 

 and allows only a smaller number of nuts on each bunch to reach 

 maturity. 



Diseases and Pests. — E. J. Butler* described in 1906 a disease 

 of the betel-nut palm which had been known in the Malnad districts 

 of Mysore particularly near Koppa for many years. In 1910 a 

 fuller account of the same disease was given by L. 0. Coleman, f 

 It is chiefl}^ from the latter paper that, we borrow the following- 

 details. The reader is referred to the more extended and fully 

 illustrated account which the same author has published as a 

 Bulletin of the Agricultural Department of Mysore. 



The disease in question is known in Kanarese, the chief 

 language of the Mysore State, as " Koleroga", which means simply 

 " Rot Disease." 



The disease has been observed with certaint}^ only in the extreme 

 western parts of Mysore. " The area affected consists of an extent 

 situated in the Western Ghauts and extending practically from the 

 extreme North of the State to a point about 80 miles Southward. 



* Butler, E. J. — Some Diseases of Palms. Ag-ricult. Journ. India, 1 (190(5) 299- 

 t Coleman, L. C— Diseases of the Areca Palm. Ann. Myc. VIII cl9lO) 591. 



