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really due to the fungoid diseases dealt with in this report, and while 

 these diseases need not cause any great alarm at the present time, it 

 should be clearly pointed out that the simple measures here advocated 

 should be adopted throughout the island so as to keep these pests well 

 in hand and prevent the possibility of a future epidemic which may 

 easily cause wide-spread damage to a now nourishing industry. These 

 measures may be shortly summed up as follows: — 



1. The husks of the cacao pods should e suitably buried with lime 

 under the trees as soon as possible after the beans have been extracted. 

 Diseased husks should either be buried away from the cacao or else 

 burnt. 



2. All old prunings and dead wood in the plantations should be col- 

 lected and burnt as often as possible and the ashes spread under the 

 trees. 



3. Diseased trees should be replaced by suckers whenever practica- 

 ble. If this is impossible the tree should be cut off level with the 

 ground and burnt. 



4. In cases of the "canker" disease, the diseased bark should ba pro- 

 perly cut and the wound tarred and the diseased bark burnt. 



5. In cases of " root" disease, the affected trees should be isolated 

 from the rest of the plantation by a suitable trench. The diseased 

 roots should be dug up and burnt and the land limed before a fresh 

 tree is planted. 



6. In removing the grubs of the cacao beetle, the wounds should be 

 tarred. 



7. Seeds from diseased pods should never be used for raising seed- 

 lings. 



A. HOWARD, Mycologist. 



NOTES ON SOME RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS. 



Mons. Chas. Patin, Consul General for Belgium at Meiellin, Colombia, 

 has on several occasions very kindly contributed seeds or plants both 

 useful and ornamental, to the collections in the Public Grardens. His 

 latest donation includes seeds of two species of Theobroma. Both are 

 hardy, growing in any kind of soil, and it is thought that they may 

 prove useful for hybridising purposes, or as stocks for grafting choice 

 and delicate varieties of T. Cacao upon. 



Ihe pod and seeds of each species, and a single leaf of No. 1, are all 

 the material that have been seen by us, so that the following provi- 

 sional and imperfect descriptions have been prepared mainly from 

 information supplied by M. Patin. 



Theobroma sp. No 1. — A tree, leaves simple, oblong, slightly obovate? 

 oblique and semi-cordate at the base, terminating abruptly in a short, 

 blunt point, 6^" long, wide at the broadest part, dull green above, 

 hoary tomentose beneath, veins conspicuous, reticulate, prominent on 

 the lower side : petiole f" long, rimose, and, with the mid-rib and the 

 six pairs of principal veins, coated with ferruginous scales ; flowers 

 orange-yellow in colour ; pod woody and thick, 7" — 8" long, 12" in 

 circumference, 5-ribbed, with warty excrescences, covered with brown 

 ielt-like tomentum. Each pod contains about 25 large seeds enve- 



