the trouble may be. Inasmuch as the palms come from your own 

 section, it may be that the trouble is one with which you are thoroughly 

 familiar. 



letter from Inspector of the Federal Horticultural Board to J. B. Johns- 

 ton, dated Oct. 24, 1916. 



If the plants left Cuba in such condition that you were unable to 

 detect any disease as being present and if there is no disease of 

 such a nature as that described at Miami on other plants of the species 

 in Cuba, I hardly see how the condition of this shipment could have 

 due to any specific disease. As you say, their bad condition must have 

 been due to some physical injury followed by a rot. That is probably 

 all we can make out of the matter. 



1 etter from Inspector of the Fedetral Horticultural Board to J. R. Jolms- 

 ton, dated Jan. 13, 1917. 



You may be interested to know of one last chapter in connection 

 with the royal palms, concerning which you wrote me at length last 

 October. Mr. William D. Sturrock, Superintendent of the James Deer- 

 ing property, informed me that he was about to remove the dead trees 

 and offered to send me a specimen. I wrote him that I would be glad 

 to see it and later received a large box containing several pieces of 

 the trunk and leaf bases. Examination revealed the presence of a 

 number of molds and saprophytic fungi but we were unable to find 

 any organism which seems in any way responsible for the death of 

 the palms. I am unable to say anything then to clear up the mystery 

 regarding the death pf these plants, but the absence of any apparent 

 parasite on the material sent me would seem to indicate that the 

 plants were injured en route to Florida, and died from the effect of 

 transit conditions rather than from the action of any parasite. 



The preceding ratlier volaimmoTis eorrespondemce regartding 

 this one shipment of royal palms indicates clearly the necessity 

 for the most caveful examination of all material that is certified 

 here in Cuba, as well as the desirability for further work on 

 the plant diseases of the Island. 



If it is difficult for the inspectors of Cuba to know all the 

 diseases here it is much more difficult for foreign inspectors to 

 do the same. As seen in the preceding letters if the inspectors in 

 the United States had known that there was no serious disease of 

 the royal palms in 'Cuba, they would have sought aij explanation 

 of the trouble in other direetions. 



