EXTRACTS OF PROCEEDINGS. 



xlv 



FRUIT COMMITTEE, 



Sir C. W. Strickland, Bart., in the Chair, and eighteen 

 members present. 



Award Recommended:— 



Cultural Commendation. 



To W. F. Hume Dick, Esq., Thames Ditton House, Thames 

 Ditton (Mr. W. Palmer, gardener), for a dish of well-grown 

 Black Hambro' Grapes. 



Other Exhibit. 



Messrs. W. & J. Brown, Stamford, sent Apple Shillaker's 

 Seedling, which was not considered equal to other kinds in 

 cultivation. 



SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 



Dr. M. T. Masters in the Chair, and ten members present. 



Cocoa-nut attached by Coccus. — Mr. McLachlan exhibited 

 leaves and a young cocoa-nut received from Jamaica severely at- 

 tacked by two species of coccus, Fiorinia pellucida, Signorct, in 

 abundance, and Mytilaspis buxi, Sign. (M. Pandani, Colustock), 

 more sparingly. This diseased condition was prevalent in the 

 West Indies. Mr. Morris remarked that cocoa-nuts in Jamaica 

 first appeared to be attacked in 1881, after the cyclone in 1880. 

 He had seen a plantation of 25,000 trees badly infested. The 

 planters attributed their unhealthy condition in 1881 to the 

 snapping of the roots in the cyclone of the previous year, whereby, 

 the vitality of the trees being affected by the injury to the roots, 

 they became an easy prey to the cocci. The insect attacks the 

 outside fronds in the first instance, giving the trees the ap- 

 pearance of having been scorched. The older trees were de- 

 scribed as bearing " blasted fruit." The usual remedies of 

 sulphur spray or kerosene emulsion being impracticable, it was 

 suggested that smoke might be partially effective. Whatever be 

 the remedy adopted, Mr. McLachlan observed that it should 

 always be applied just at the time when the larvae are being- 

 hatched. 



Effects on Plants of London Fog. — Mr. Dyer suggested that 

 statistics should be collected on the nature and effects of London 

 fog upon plants in and around the metropolis during the winter. 



