July 1, 1899.] THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTUEIST. 
53 
is of age. You strip the green from the upper 
part till it becomes white ; when soft like a turnip 
well boiled, if eaten wit)i milk or butter, it is 
the best of all foods, nourishing and easily di- 
gested." 
The "proof of the pudding is the eating 
thereof" ; and accordingly we have been 
favoured by Mr. Nock with the result of 
a trial made by him of part of the stem of an 
Abyssinian banana intheGardens. Hewrites : 
— "We tried some last night and find it very 
fair, but a trifle bitter. I daresay with prac- 
tice in cooking and choosing the right part 
of the stem, it would make a nice change 
as a vegetable. It is rather rare in Ceylon, 
but can be propagated to any extent by seeds. 
As an ornamental plant it is one of the 
handsomest known." 
This banana is a larger and far showier 
plant or cluster of plants than our ordin- 
ary banana. In America seeds were selling 
at a penny a piece, and the plant is likely 
to be largely grown as a vegetable. Here 
it ought to do well in gardens throughout 
Upper Uva and the higher planting districts 
generally. 
ENEMIES OF THE COFFEE TREE IN B.C. 
AFKICA. 
{From an ex-Ccylon iilanter.) 
BORER No. 1 
After a coffee clearing gets a year olrl, be on the 
ontlook for the longicorn beetles, for they emerge 
from their cavity in the trees of the forest and begin 
to fly aboat from tlie middle of November to tbe 
middle of Blarch (practically four months), during 
which time they are maturing and laying their eggs ; 
and as sure as fate many will find their way into a 
coffee estate. Vheu tliey find ccffee, as they seem- 
ingly do, a palatable food, they live ou the brak of tbe 
plants, and tlie female lays her eggs, usually from 
five to seven in number. Prom tree to tree she flies 
and lays only one egg, be it remembered, at the 
bottom of each tree in tlie ground (not as is usually 
supposed on the tree itself) about the size of a small 
canary seed, dirty-yellow in colour. The egg soon 
hatches and finds its way, as a very diminutive grub, 
to the root of the coffee anri begins to nibble at the 
bark just at the collar of the plant. Working its way 
in it soon has a covering nest protecting it from birds 
and insects ; ants even cannot get at it. In the course 
of a month or two, the forceps of the grub become 
Btrong enough to tackle the wood, which it burrows 
into and lives upon, till fully matured, boring up or 
down the tree, turnir-g out sawdust and keeciug ila 
hole open to prevent suffocation till fully matured, 
taking about six mouths before turning into the chry- 
salis stage ; during this time he either kills the 
young tree outright, or damages it so much that it 
never recovers or makes a healthy tree afterwards. 
After the first rains in November and December the 
borer grub flies as a full-fledged beetle and having 
found a favourite feeding and breeding tree in our 
coffe'a estates, sticks to it and pgain begins egg-!aying. 
Some of my planting friends may soy, " Oh, I have 
■ found half a dozen borers in one tree." This may be 
BO, but I challenge any planter to produce more than 
one borer in young coffee under two or three years 
■ old. It is when au estate becomes a nursery for the 
■ longicorn and several beetles lay eggs at the root of 
a tree, that a number are found, or the same beetle 
may lay more than one on the same ground, for it 
. lays six to seven eggs ; but this is not likely, for it iiies 
about at night, seldom resting more than an hour or so, 
on one tree, although it sometimes feeds a whole day 
on the same tree ; I judge from the amount of bark 
eaten. I feel almost certain eggs are only laid at night 
and not during the daytime when the beetle is at 
rest and feeding or basking half asleep on the sunny 
So much for borer No. 1. I shall now describe 
BOEElt NO. 2 
which comes from the larva of a yellowish white moth 
with steel bars across its body, not so bright and visible 
as the Ceylon moth. This moth lays its eg"s usually 
only one, m a little web on the leaf of acoff 3o1,ree about 
the month of .January usually, and the egg soon turns 
into a borer which fin.'s its way into the coffee tree 
by means of a puncture it manages to make in tender 
green wood either in a branch or the stem of the tree 
and works Us way into the pith along the priniarv 
and down the stem maidng air holes as it cross along 
(also pushing out saw-dust the same as the longicorn 
grub) till it reaches the root : only working in the 
pith, be it remembered, till it forms a chrysahs in four 
to SIX months' time. Tbis borer is not very destruc- 
tive, and IS easily discovered as the branch or top of the 
tree it enters by usually dies. I have never found 
more than one in a tree. B.,th these borers I have 
seen in Ceylon— the first called the white borer and 
the other tlie red borer ; but the damage done was so 
trifling that they were hardly known to casual ob- 
servers. I wjs always fond of " poochi " catohin" and 
have caught many of the same stag beetles and moths 
in Ueylou. 
WHITE GRUB. 
This is the most common of all grubs, and perhaps 
does more damage to young coffee than the borer 
Ihe beetle is chocolate coloured, and the grub is 
white, ami curls up when exposed on the surface of 
the ground. This insect, unlike the borer, seems to 
propagate all the year round having no set time of 
year for la5ang eggs and lying in tbe chrysalis s age 
tor i have found grub of all sizes, and beetles all 
in the same place, at the same time the farmer 
busy trimming ihe fibrous feeding roots of the coffee 
as last as they are made. 
BLACK GRUB. 
This grub is very destructive, especially in veee- 
lable gardens It comes to the surface at night, cuts 
off coffee seedlings and rings larger plants at the 
collar and even goes the length of climbing for a 
leaf occasionally. In the case of its feeliuR onera 
tions being distuibed by the break of day it nulls 
the leaf into its hole underground where it habitu- 
ally descends to rest during the daytime. I do not 
think this insect eats the coffee roots like the wh-te 
grub, but It does a iremendous amount of damaee 
to nurseries and young plants in a new clearinff-this 
I am certain of The moth of this grub is black 
with a torpedo-shaped body, prominent eves and 
flie.s very tast ; it appears just at dusk, darting'about 
seekin.' food m flower gardens and elsewhere and 
laying its eggs, but how many I do not icnow, in 
November and December. The grub lives about six 
months and then turns into a repulsive lookin- 
glossy chrysahs with a hard shell, sharp-poinled at 
one end and twists about the sharp end when touched 
Black soil rich in vegetable humous is full of this 
grub and it is seldom found in poor land. 
WIRE WORM. 
This is the only other gaib that attacks coffee to 
my knowledge : the beetle is small, about as big as 
an ordinary cleg-fly, and has a habit of pretending 
to be dead wnen caught. When turned on his back 
he lies still for a short time till bethinks alldaaeeris 
over ; then arching his body by drawing toglther 
both ends, springs m the air about a yard and lands 
on his feet and flies. I do not know how long the 
grub of this beetle remains alive ; but in one case 
one; enough, I have known one to kill out an " anona" 
(bulla k s heart) tree three years old-I should imagine 
about SIX monlhs. He is not very destructive to 
coffee (m fact not at all common), but does a 
lot of damage to fruit trees and vegetables. 
I J- r"-"' ^'" = "^"'"8 iiseiiin ana out 
9f It, agcordJUg as i'e(xuu-ecl to enable it tg myalls aboa^ 
