178 
Royat Garpens, Kew, to COLONIAL OFFICE 
Royal Gardens, Kew, 
Sm, June 29, 1897. 
Wira reference to your letter of the 29th August last, 
No. 17,220/96, and subsequent correspondence, I have the honour to 
for bie erei a copy of the report prepared hy Mr. Walter F. H. 
Blandford, F.Z.S., on the — miae to plants at the Botanic 
Station al Aburi, on the Gold Coas 
2. The preparation of this ang has, I regret to state, been unduly 
delayed by Mr. Blandford’s engagement on the "Natal Tsetse fly inquiry. 
The results of the investigation as now presented canaot, however, 
fail to be of considerable ‘value on the Gold Coast, and as some o 
those destructive insects are widely distributed in West Africa, they 
will be of service in other colonies where coffee, india-rubber, orange, 
and other trees are now being cultivated. 
3. Under these circumstances you may consider it desirable to com- 
municate a copy of the report to the Nd nors of the other Colonies 
in West Africa in addition to the Governor of the Gold Coast, for 
whom it has been specially prepared. The small parcel sent herewith 
containing some of the insects named and mounted should also be sent 
to the Gold Coast, to be kept there for future reference 
4. It will be eee that Mr. Blandford indicates somewhat technical 
lines of inquiry and methods of treatment. In the first instance these 
should be dcl. studied and applied by the curators of tlie botanic 
stations, and the results of their observations might be placed on record 
for the information of pezsons engaged in cultivating oe plants, 
in occasional bulletins or in the € ook of the stati 
(Signed). "Nw. T. THISELTON-DYER. 
Sir Joun Beamon, K.C.M.G., C.B., 
Colonial Office, S.W 
Report by Mr. Warrer F. H. Br. ANDFORD on INSECTS injurious to 
Coffee, &c., from Abur 
MATERIAL RECEIVED. 
The material received from Aburi consists of insects in various 
stages, preserved in spirit, and of samples of coffee shrubs, &c., which 
have been injured by them. Accompanying the material is a short 
report by ves J. Farrell Easmon, Chief Medical Officer. 
It ma stated at once that the material and information supplied ar 
e to furnish the basis of a detailed report and fully set forth the 
measures to pted to relieve the plantations of these pests, In the 
case of, say, European insects of which the habits are tolerably well 
wn, a mere identification of au injurious species is often sufficient to 
enable a - of treatment to be Suggested. 
owever, of exotie insects it is only rarely that evidence 
other than that actually supplied with the specimens is carat and 
the utmost that ca: done is to advise on general grounds, potios 
out the direction IRR further ard a take, and ne line of 
treatment which such inquiry, if it lead to a positive result, 
deccm This is all that can be dine d in the picant case. The insects 
