7 
.. Gasteralphes Iceryi is now known as Pulvinaria gasteralpha 
-(Ieery) ; and Coccus m. i s Icerya seychellarum el): 
Of these two, the former till imperfectly known ; but the 
latter is well known, and p been found in Madeira, Sey- 
chelles, aede Mauritius, Hong Kong, on "iA and 
Formosa. It occurs in China on rose and Podocarpus 
Without citing dis rather copious bibliography, it will suffice to 
say that since the early seventies it has been held that the real 
culprit in Mauritius was the Icerya sacchari. 
The late Mr. W. M. Maskell, in Trans. New Zealand Institute 
for 1896, p. 320, records that he received some of the sugar-cane 
coccid from Mauritius, through Mr. Lounsbury of Cape Town ; 
and it was not an Jcerya, but to his surprise it turned out to be 
ES sacchari, Ckll., which I had described from Trinidad 
B. W. I.) in 1895. It was understood that it occurred with 
Saeed ne A ae n" and the two species are ,confoun ded by the 
residents under the name of ‘pou blanc'"; Mr. Maskell still 
supposed that the latter was the principal offender. 
But in a letter dated ae 29, 1897, Mr. Maskell wrote me: :— 
“Note in my paper of 1896 your Dactylop ius sacchari from 
Mauritius. In a letter m received from that island, I am told 
that Icerya sacchari never does any harm whatsoever to sugar- 
cane, and that it is, in fact, never seen on that plant, even 
ee; en we have all been wrong about it for the 
ast five and twenty yea 
There can be little teats that the Dactylopius sacchari is of 
eastern origin, though it happened to be first described from 
Trinidad. 
Yours very truly, 
(Signed) THEO. D. A. COCKERELL. 
DCXXXVIL—MOSS FLORA OF THE ROYAL 
GARDENS, KEW. 
In the Kew Bulletin er a (p. 115) it was pmi out that of 
the half a square mile pied by the Royal Gardens and some 
adjacent pieces of. Boys So above a third or “ Mni hundred 
acres is little disturbed = any kind of cultivation, and it has 
certainly remained so for at least a century and a half. Some 
portions may never poss sH "uve been subjected to cultivation at 
all. Itis not surprising, therefore, that in the background of horti- 
cultural treatment there still subsists enn wild fauna and flora of no 
inconsiderable dimensions. These, as opportunity — it is 
biet to work out and catalogue from time to time. 
ring plants were ur by Mr. N a. in the 
er nal E Donen for 1875 ; the fungi by M Mr. Massee in the Kew 
Bulletin (l.c., pp. 115-167). pm is indebted to Mr. p 8. 
) 
Salmon for a further instalment towards a complete genie ee 
of the flora in the list of mosses now published, which, Meet 
introductory remarks below, is from his pen. 
