Timbers. 



429 



[November., 1909. 



country, setting forth the advantages 

 of forests to agriculture from all points 

 of view. 



The Afforestation Branch might also 

 be required to carefully watch the ex- 

 tension of deforestation on areas out- 

 side the reserved forests, to report on all 

 cases in which the denudation of the 

 land would have disastrous, effects, and 

 to submit proposals as to the action 

 which ought to be taken to prevent it. 



At first all this would be done in a 

 small way, but we believe that once an 

 Afforestation Branch is started, it will 

 gradually expand and become of more 



importance if possible to the country in 

 general than the present Forest Depart- 

 ment. The latter would gradually ex- 

 pand also, for as areas become success- 

 fully stocked and felling become neces- 

 sary or possible, they would of course be 

 handed over for management to the 

 branch of the Department now in 

 existence. 



We believe that in the adoption of 

 this policy is the one key to the preven- 

 tion of famines, and the progress of 

 such an Afforestation Branch would be 

 watched with intense interest by all 

 the world. 



PLANT SANITATION. 



MISCELLANEA : CHIEFLY PATHO- 

 LOGICAL. 



By T. Petch. 



The publication of the circular on 

 "Pink disease" (Corticium javanicum) 

 has evoked a flood of specimens from 

 all quarters. It seems to have been 

 fairly prevalent during the prolonged 

 rains of the last four months. An 

 example on coffee adds another to the 

 list of plants attacked by it in Ceylon ; 

 in this instance, the fungus developed its 

 conspicuous pink patches along the 

 fruiting branches, Two most interest- 

 ing examples were sent from Southern 

 India where it attacks Crotalaria inter- 

 planted among Hevea, as well as the 

 young Hevea. In one instance, the Cro- 

 talaria was about a year old, but had 

 not flowered nor been pruned ; the stem 

 forwarded was exceptionally woody 

 and measured about three-quarters of 

 an inch in diameter. The disease ap- 

 pears to begin, as a rule, near the base 

 of the stem. One correspondent states 

 " almost the whole of the Crotalaria, I 

 have noticed, that has been sown in 

 these parts is covered with the same 

 disease-" In such cases the densely 

 grown Crotalaria acts as a reservoir of 

 disease, from which it may spread to 

 the Hevea ; but it is scarcely possible, 

 without continuous observation, to say 

 whether the attacks on Crotalaria and 

 Hevea are successive or simultaneous. 

 The growth of Crotalaria in Southern 

 India appears to be much more vigorous 

 than in Ceylon— I have never seen any 

 Ceylon plants which attained the size of 

 these Indian specimens before flower- 

 ing,— and, in accordance with this, Corti- 

 cium javanicum has not yet been re- 



corded on Crotalaria in Ceylon. There 

 does not appear to be any danger in 

 growing Crotalaria among rubber in 

 Ceylon at present, and where the growth 

 is so vigorous that it forms a tall jungle, 

 some smaller green manure and cover 

 plant must be adopted, or it must be 

 cut down earlier. From the rnyco- 

 logical standpoint any green manure 

 plant which grows tall should not be 

 planted in dense masses ; the lower the 

 plant, the less is the danger of disease. 

 A plant which would not exceed a foot 

 in height would be ideal, and could be 

 sown as thickly as wished. There is 

 a tendency to grow manure plants too 

 long. In temperate climates such a 

 crop is often ploughed in at the end of a 

 month; but here the idea always appears 

 to be to make it run as long as possible 

 and to obtain some profit by selling 

 seed. There is little advantage in a 

 green manure plant, as such, until it is 

 cut down and mulched in, but the 

 question is of course complicated by the 

 problem of weeds and wash. 



In a recent publication on Hevea 

 diseases, the fungus of ''pink disease" is 

 referred to as Corticium Zimmermanni. 

 This is another name for Corticium java* 

 nicum, founded on a series of mistakes. 

 In 1899, P. Hennings named a fungus 

 from Java, A leurodiscus javanicus, and 

 in 1901, Zimmermann named another 

 fungus from Java, Corticium javani- 

 cum. The latter is the fungus of " pink 

 disease," the former being quite a differ- 

 ent species, as the name indicates. Now, 

 all descriptions of fungi are periodically 

 collected by Saccardo and published in 

 a myeological encylopcedia ; and as he 

 refuses to recognise the genus Aleuro- 

 discus, he changed Henning's name (in 

 1902,) to Corticium javanicum. In this 



