July i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
27 
by the difference of labor entailed in dusting the trees 
with what will afterwards remain as manure on the 
soil, and that of the mere spreading of the substance 
over the ground. Three months of sharp work will 
effect the cure f or good and for ever, if such a thing 
is possible in Ceylon. 
If I for sometime shared the mistake as to a 
lilarnentous phase of existence of the fungus, why, 
better men had accepted Mr. Morris' theory; and 
really there was nothing so very strange in it. The 
main point remains, which is, that it does not make 
; nie iota of difference in my treatment nor the results 
of it, of which I challenge inspection. 
And please be informed that I hereby claim priority 
before the whole world in what I have accomplished 
and am ready to do again. — I beg to remain, sir, 
yours very faithfully, J AM US C. P. STOHCK. 
Levuka, 9th April 1881. 
Sir, — Understanding from Mr. Storck that he has 
written to you concerning the treatment claimed to 
have been discovered by him for curing coffee leaf 
disease, I write to offer my testimony to the fact 
that in December 1879 I observed the coffee trees 
on Mr. Storck's estate to be covered with disease. 
They were all destroyed, except a few, which Mr. 
Storck informed me he operated upon, and these I 
Baw last December when they were apparently free 
from disease. I saw them again last Sunday, when 
they appeared to be in the same state as on my 
previous visit and particularly vigorous. It is only 
fair to Mr. Storck that I should say this much, — 
Your obedient servant, 
Wji, FILLINGHAM pare. 
P. S. — I think Mr. Storck's estimate of the expense 
(£4 an acre) to be very greatly in excess of what the 
actual cost will be for adopting this treatment. 
THK COFFEE LEAF FUNGUS (? INSECT). 
Dindigul, 12th February 1881. 
SlB, — Behoving with Hartley that any hypothesis which 
has so much plausibility as to explain a considerable num- 
ber of facts helps us to disgest these facts in proper order, 
to bring new ones to light and make experiments erucis 
lor future enquiries, I am therefore constrained to follow 
up my report on coffee leaf disease with a few further 
remarks, in which it is to bo hoped that greater light 
may be cast on the truth that leaf disease has no con- 
nection whatever with the fungus theory as advocated by 
Mr. I). .Morris, late of Ceylon, particularly as the facts 
now put forth contain personal observations over a period 
of some 14 months. The [conclusions arrived at are 
not doduccd from mere speculative analysis, but from 
careful observation and tedious manipulations with the 
microscope. But since none of the great scientific advance- 
ments have been established without encountering much 
opposition, the views promulgated by me, concerning the 
true cauvo of coffee leaf disease, have as a natnral con- 
comitant provoked adverse criticism. 
The following notes, however, will doubtless serve to help 
the readers of the Observer to judge whether my investi- 
gations in leaf-disease are based on a mere hypothesis 
"i' on some basis of sterling reality. 
I note that in the beginning of December 1879 a 
diseased primary branch of Coffea Arabics Was submitted 
'or my examination by a cott'eo planter in the district. 
The branch was a beautiful specimen, the different phases 
"I the disease I oing well developed. The diseased leaves 
were at once submitted hv nie to the following examina- 
tion: — 
ft. A quantity of ruat was carefully scraped off, mixed 
with wator and its reaction taken, while a small quantity 
was sipped from the vessel containing tho solution : it 
was insipid and leafy. 
Macerated three of 1 ho diseased leaves in a basin of cold 
■qirin.; water tor 18 boon and found on ovamination that 
the dark brown spots were isolated patches of dead tissue. In 
pathological language one would he inclined to call thorn 
islands of ulceration, in as much as they had no connec- 
tion with the surrounding healthy tissue. The dark brown 
snots were quite dostitute of cuticle and parenchyma. 
They were simply the remains of reticulate portions of the 
leaf. 
C. A diseased leaf was pluced under the microscope 
and examined : quantities of fioceulent matter and bright 
masses of granular stuff were fccii in abundance. This was 
done with a lens of low power. 
d. Placed a minute quantity of rust on a slide and 
viewed it with a lens of hi l; h power. A magnificent cluster 
of oval shaped orange cells, forming distinct groups, were 
mado visible. These colls however were quite destitute of 
nuclei. If we admit that the cells are non-nucleated, but 
filled with a proioplasmic yolk, still one fails even with 
high magnifying media to detect fission of the mass or 
segmentation or cleavage of tin; protoplasm. In truth f am 
of opinion ibat the fibrils of silk and the digested cell, 
tissue (that constitute the main mass of rust) lie entirely 
external and have no relation with the internal structure of 
the leaf. Some of the fibrils may be seen in very close 
proximity to the tissue surrounding the margin of the 
brown spots, dipping as it were into their interspaces), 
so that the entire morbid process has its origin and 
development from without and not from the intercellular 
tissue of the coffee leaf. 
e. A piece of diseased leaf on which the rust and floss 
were thickly set was cut out and carefully examined with 
the microscope. The floss was found to be made up of 
fibrils of fine silk : can trace no hyphse or conidia. 
f. Placed on glass a small quantity of the floss and 
moistened with water,and when submitted to an examina- 
tion shewed no signs of germinating, seemed a little elong- 
ated, doubtless due to the fact that the fibres were sollen 
from the moisture in them: not soluble in acetic acid. 
g. Having after repeated examinations failed to dis- 
cover organs of sexual generation, I had no other alter 
native left but to believe that the orange oval-shaped 
cells were not reproductive sporid/ia. Because, unless sexual 
organs of some kind existed, the vital act of reproduction, 
either by gamogenesis such as takes place in the potato 
blight or congregation could not be produced. It is a 
well established law in physiology, that, propagation of 
spicies, either in the vegetable or animal kingdoms, can 
only be effected by the union of cell with cell, the 
elements of the male uniting with those of the female, 
from which the germ cell is produced, and since it is 
ordained by a higher power that every living organism 
must be derived from a germ it was but natural for 
me to conclude that coffee leaf-disease was not due to 
the growth and development of the fungus Hemileia 
vastatrix, at the expense of the soft cellular tissue of the 
coffee leaf, but to some other cause, the details of which 
have already been published in the columns of the Observer 
of the 19th January 1881. 
That the larva? discovered by me do not suck out the 
spores as advanced by the editor I am confident, for I 
have frequently, with a low magnifying lens, been able to 
see that it was the cellular tissue they were teedinrr on, 
the movement of the mandibles being lateral, i. e- from 
right to left, and vice versa. I have also on several occa- 
sions been made cognizant of the fact that the excreta 
cast from the larva was done with a wriggle and dilation 
of the anal segment; this excreta is identical in color and 
I character to the orange sporanges of Mr Morris. 
Jn conclusion I can only add, would that the larvoe 
decreaso in number, for with it there shall be a corre- 
sponding diminution in the development of coffee leaf 
disease —Yours faithfully, OLIVER W. JONES, 
Asst. Supt Med. School, Dindigul. 
P. S —April 21st.— The moths referred to by your 
planting Correspondent from the interior are in my opinion 
quite distinct from the moth made mention of by me, for 
1 find that tho living caterpillars in my possession con. 
tinue still to exist in their pupal state and shall do so 
until the end of March, or at a period corresponding with 
tho first blow of the cofloe flowering season, when the 
moths shall escape further confinement, to enjoy their 
short hfo among tho sweet smelling flowers of 'the cotfee 
trees. It the planters would carry out my instructions 
i as regards the destruction ol •■ II fallen and diseased leaves 
by burning them, there would Ik> ft Corresponding diininu- 
tion in coffee leaf disease next sca»oii — but please note 
; that this must be done before the end of the month. 
