280 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
always propagated by cuttings, and has been so 
propagated in this region for at least five hundred years 
and probably much longer. Propagating from seed 
has, it is true, been occasionally done, and it is probable 
that a certain number of stray seeds dispersed by birds, 
or accidentally fallen on the ground, have come eventu- 
ally into cultivation, and perhaps strengthened the 
stock. There is every reason to believe that plants 
constantly reproduced by cuttings deteriorate seriously 
after a lapse of time. Some completely die out, others 
become feeble and readily succumb to the attacks of 
insects and pests. A few plants, like sugar-cane, pine- 
apples, and pepper, seem to remain healthy under this 
treatment longer than others. A time, however, will 
come in which they also break down, and it is probable 
that this has been the case in the Malabar pepper. 
Planters are always in a hurry to reap the results 
of their labours as soon as possible, and can hardly be 
expected to delay by raising pepper slowly from seed so 
as to eventually get a stronger stock which will last 
longer than plants raised from cuttings continuously, 
and this is especially the case in native cultivations, of 
which pepper is mainly one. Still, planters, while 
continuing their cultivations from cuttings, might at 
the same time raise seedlings from a good stock in order 
to replace at a later date the cuttings derived from a 
sexual reproduction carried on perhaps for many 
centuries. 
Root Fungus , — A very serious disease due to a root 
fungus is described in the Kew Bulletin, 1895, p. 178. 
The disease broke out in Mysore. It is due to a fungus 
allied to DematopJiora necatrix, a fungus which does 
much damage to vines and orchards in Europe. The 
planter who describes the attack, Mr. T. S. Middleton, 
writes as follows : — 
It is not the pepper only that is attacked, but even the 
saplings or undergrowth of the forest trees which spring up 
very rapidly suffer also. All over the plantations, at various 
points, this disease attacks these young saplings in patches of 
