and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— July, 1911. 98 



The flowers are gathered during the month of 

 May. For their distillation an ordinary still 

 may be used, but a special apparatus is prefer- 

 able. These are of smaller size at bottom than 

 those employed for distilling spirits, and some- 

 what higher ; a grating is also provided, so that 

 the flowers and leaves are not in direct contact 

 with the fire. An ordinary-sized still should 

 contain about 40 kilogrammes of flowers (88 lbs.), 

 and between 50 and 60 litres (11 and 13 gallons) 

 of water. This should yield from 30 to 40 litres 

 (6 to 8 gallons) of liquid. 



The products cf distillation pass from the still 

 into a receiver, so arranged that the condensed 

 liquid always remains atthe same level in it, the 

 water is drawn off from the bottom by a bent 

 tube, whilst the globules of essential oil that 

 float on the surface are collected at the top of 

 the vessel. The oil, though not very soluble in 

 water, is sufficient to impart its perfume to it, 

 and is sold as eau de flour d'oranger, whilst that 

 obtained from the distillation of the leaves is 

 termed eau de broule. A kilogramme ol orange 

 flowers yields, on the average, 2 grammes (30 - 86 

 grains) of neroh, worth from 500 to 1,000 francs 

 per kilo (£9 Is. 7d. to £18 3s. 2d. per lb.). The 

 orange-flower water is sold, on the average, at 

 25 ceutimes per litre (about 2£d. per quart.) The 

 leaves yield about \\ grammes per kilo of petit 

 grain, worth about one-tenth the price of the 

 ntroli. The quantity of flowers furnished by 

 each tree varies considerably, and depends on 

 age, vigour of growth, situation, soil and other 

 circumstances. A well-kept garden near Grasse, 

 with trees, half of which were forty years and 

 the other half twenty-two years old, has pro- 

 duced as much as 2,800 kilogrammes (about 2 

 tons 15cwt.) in a single year. The cost of plant- 

 ing a hectare of orange trees is estimated at 4,000 

 francs, or about £65 per acre. — Royal Society of 

 Arts Journal for June. 



PALMYRA DISEASE. 



We extract the following from a report on the 

 bud-rot of palms in the Godavari and Kistna 

 districts written by Mr Macrae, Entomologist 

 to the Government of Madras : — 



Species of palm attacked. — Four kinds of palm 

 trees are common in the delta. Of these the 

 palmyra palm, the coconut palm and the areca 

 nut palm are all subject to the disease but the 

 date palm has never been observed to be attac- 

 ked. Many thousands of palmyras, several hun- 

 dreds of coconut palms and a few scores of areca 

 nut palms have succumbed. Palms of all ages 

 are liable to attack but more mature palms die 

 than young palms. 



Symptoms and cause of the disease. — The first 

 indication that a pa'm is diseased is usually the 

 withering of one or more of the expanding lea- 

 ves. The central bud dies and the leaves gradually 

 wither one after another towards the exterior 

 of the crown. When a deceased crown is cut 

 open spots are seen on the leaf-sheaths and occa- 

 sionally on the leaf-stalks and leaf-blades. At 

 first these are light coloured but gradually be- 

 oome brown or even black when they have be- 

 come dry and old. The spots are slightly sunken 

 with a raised rim. On some of the spots a white 

 wooly wel or mycelium is seen. This is the body 



of the fungus, Pythium palmivorum, which 

 causes the disease. It is made up of many fine, 

 colourless threads woven together. These threads 

 produce small round sacks in which are develop- 

 ed the spores. They are the reproductive bodies 

 of the fungus. 



Many attempts have been made to cultivate 

 the fungus artificially, but all have failed. It will 

 grow only on living parts of certain palms. Some 

 other parasitic fungi behave in the same way. 



On an average the rate of extension of the 

 disease as a whole seems to be a little over 

 a mile a year. Except for an extension beyond 

 Peddapur, for one up the right bank of the 

 Godava r i river in Yernagudem taluk and for the 

 one to Masulipatam the area affected by the 

 disease is continuous. The Imperial Mycolo- 

 gist writes : — " It is quite clear both from the 

 observations made in the field during the past 

 four years and from information gathered from 

 the cultivators, that the spread has occurred in 

 a centrifugal manner from the locality in the 

 Gautami Godavari first infected. .Naturally 

 the flow has been more rapid along some lines 

 than others, and barriers such as the main chan- 

 nels of the river and tracts bare of palms have 

 checked extension in some directions for a 

 greater or less period ; on the whole, how- 

 ever, the onset has been remarkably even and 

 regular all round." 



6. Disease not Uniformly Distributed. — Though, 

 speaking broadly, the aisease occupies a con- 

 tinuous area yet its distribution in that area is 

 very uneven. In some localities many palms 

 die continually, in others a few die now and 

 again while in others only occasionally a palm 

 succumbs. The Imperial Mycologist mentions 

 a case in one of the lankas near the place where 

 the disease is believed to have originated, in 

 which 400 palmyras were found dead or dying 

 in a single acre, and another case at Kolanka 

 where 50 to 75 per cent of the palms within a 

 mile of the village had succumbed by the end 

 of 1907. "Such a high moitality cannot be 

 equalled now in any part of the affected area." 

 Tne intensity varies even from field to held. 

 Several cases have been seen where the disease 

 is confined to definite topes of palms while topes 

 in adjacent fields remain quite healthy. Damp- 

 ness of soil favours the disease. Along water 

 channels, on paddy bunds and on black soil the 

 mortality of palms is greater and more rapid 

 than in opener situations and on sandy soil. 



7. Means of Spreading the Disease. — The chief 

 possible ways by which the disease may be 

 spread from tree to tree are — 



1, by the wind, I 3, by insects, 



2, by tappers, J 4, by birds, 



1. Wind. — " Most epidemic diseases which 

 resemble the bud-rot of palms are spread 

 through the air. The parasites depend for their 

 propagation chiefly on spores, which are set 

 free and are carried into the air by the wind. 

 Alighting on healthy plants they germinate 

 and produce infection. Such are the potato 

 blight, cereal rusts and the like. Pythium 

 palmivorum, which is very similar to the cause 

 of potato blight, produces spores which would 

 be just as capable of causing rapid spread of the 

 disease as those of the latter, provided that 



