410 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



from the first attack, but the usual period is 

 five or six years. In coconuts, young palms may 

 be killed in five years, but this is exceptional. 

 Eight or ten years appears to be a more usual 

 period, while in very many cases the disease 

 progresses enough to cause barrenness, but fails 

 to kill the tree outright. 



As . regards the identity of the. disease, all 

 that can be safely said at present, Dr Butler 

 states, is that the roots of the diseased 

 palms are rotted by the attacks of a parasitic 

 fungus which appears to be a Botryodpilodia, 

 and that the root rot caused by the latter is 

 probably the cause of the present trouble. As 

 a general rule, the first indication that a coco- 

 nut palm is attacked is the opening out of the 

 outer leaves from the head. Eventually the lead- 

 ing or central shoot becomes stunted and pallid, 

 any may dry up altogether. The nuts become 

 ■affected being fower and smaller than usual ; the 

 white kernel is shrivelled, and the copra pre- 

 pared from it is said to be deficient in oil. Dr. 

 Butler adds : — "The fluid inside is reduced in 

 quantity (or oven I was told sometimes absent, 

 though I did not see any such case) and is al- 

 tered in quality, becoming unpalatable to drink. 

 In later stages a large proportion of the nuts 

 drop in an immature condition. In more severe 

 cases the spathes are unable to burst out at all 

 or if they do, rot away early and the palm be- 

 comes barren. In healthy palms a bunch of nuts 

 is given about every two months. The best trees 

 in the submontane districts yield about sixty to 

 eighty nuts a year. Nearer the coast the yield 

 may rise to eighty or hundred, though the 

 average is much lower. I was shown one fine 

 palm that gave up to a year or two ago, an 

 average of twenty nuts per bunch ; it is now 

 diseased and gave this year only three or four." 



The coconut disease which has lately been 

 attracting so much attention in Ceylon, 

 where it is called the bleeding stem disease, 

 though similar in many respects to the Travan- 

 core disease, is nevertheless different, being 

 attributed by Mr T Petch, the Ceylon Govern- 

 ment Mycologist, to a fungus known as Thicla- 

 uiopsis Ethaceticus, which in India, Dr Butler 

 says, as far as is at present known, is perfectly 

 harmless. The Godavery palm disease is differ- 

 ent again, being attributed to a fungus called 

 Pythium palmivorum. The most characteristic 

 feature of the latter is the withering of the ceu- 

 tral shoot in its early stages, whereas in the 

 Travancore disease the central shoot is only 

 affected at a later period. Dr Butler considers 

 the Travancore disease so serious that he recom- 

 mends that the export from Travancore of living 

 plants and of roots (said to be used for fuel by 

 metal workers and also as medicine) should be for- 

 bidden. The danger is specially great to the 

 neighbouring State of Cochin, between which 

 and Travancore there is a very large waterborne 

 trade in coconut produce A large number of 

 coconuts are grown in Cochin and that State 

 adjoins on the north the extensive coconut 

 districts of British Malabar ; so Dr Butler 

 suggests, and with good reason, that stringent 

 regulations are required to prevent the infection 

 of those areas. The British Districts of Coim- 

 batore on the north-east and Tinnevelly on the 

 east have less to fear, the trade between them 



and Travancore being less extensive and pro- 

 bably including little export of raw coconut 

 produce ; and no danger is to be apprehended 

 from the nuts, coir, oil and the above ground 

 parts of the coconut tree. 



THE "GRAPE FRUIT" AND THE 

 POMELO. 



Croydon, March 20th. 

 Sir,— In your issue of 26th February I read 

 that Mr C Drieberg, Secretary of the Agricul- 

 tural Society, has just received from the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Washington, 

 packets of seeds of the grape fruit of Florida. 

 The paragraph goes on to state tha t the identity 

 of the grape fruit has not been properly settled. 

 It is stated to be the permelo (citrus deeumanu) 

 the Jambola of the Sinhalese ; and again it is 

 said to be a cross between the sweet orange 

 (citius aurantmm) and the permelo and produced 

 in clusters likf> the grape. The United States 

 Department of Agriculture calls it the permelo. 

 But these points could be settled when the seeds 

 now put down produce fruit after a number of 

 years. 



Now the above rather surprises me. When in 

 1S96 I copied into the Gevlon Observer from a 

 horticultural journal a statement that the 

 "grape fruit" was identical with the pomelo, 

 the authorities at Kew waxed furious, and you 

 wrote that an apology was due to them by the 

 CO. for inserting such a statement. And yet now 

 Isee that the United States (Department of Agri- 

 culture call the "grapefruit" the "permelo' 

 [sic]l As I wrote to you recently, quantites of 

 "grape fruit" from Jamaica were selling on 

 barrows in London at two a penny, and delicious 

 they were: at the same time, I do not think they 

 excel a really good Ceylon pomelo. 



As regards the spelling "permelo " : is this an 

 Americanism ? I never saw it before, though I have 

 seen pomelo, povieloe, pumeio, punvnelo, pumelow, 

 &c, &c; while to go back to the original (?) 

 dompelomes, we have amongst other strange cor- 

 ruptions pimplenose, and pumpel-nut ! (tholatter 

 in the English translation of Wolf's account of 

 Ceylon.) 



Whatever the origin of the absurd and mis- 

 leading name "grapefruit," the sooner it is 

 dropped the better. It is almost as bad as "grape 

 nuts," which have not the remotest connection 

 with either grapes or nuts. 



DONALD FERGUSON. 



THE "POMELO OR PUMMELO" 



Sir, — I see Bonavia in his "Oranges and 

 Lemons of India and Ceylon " has the fol- 

 lowing : — "The word pummelo is, of course, 

 a corruption of the Dutch Pompel-moes, through 

 Pummelnose, by first making it Pumnielos, 

 aud then turning it into the singular Pummelo." 

 He adds: — "Shaddock is said to come from 

 Capt. Shaddock, who first introduced it into 

 the West Indies." — Yours, &c, 



HORTICULTURIST. 



