X 
CARDAMOMS 
347 
Boarmia Bhurmitra, Wik. — A brown twig -like 
caterpillar of this species of Geometer moth was found 
by Mr. E. Green to have destroyed the foliage of a large 
number of cardamom plants in Ceylon. The insect 
really attacked the Gremllea rohusta trees used as 
shade for tea plants and the cardamoms, and having 
devoured all the leaves of the grevillas attacked the 
next plant they could eat, which happened to be the 
cardamoms. This is a common occurrence when cater- 
pillars of any kind become so abundant that they too 
soon eat all their proper food-stuff, and have to supple- 
ment the failure by something else. The moth is about 
in. across, brown with transverse streaks and dots of 
darker colour. The case is recorded in Watt’s Pests of 
the Tea Plant. 
Coccidae . — There is a small but common Coccid 
which I have found attacking the under side of the leaf 
of cardamoms. The insects, which are very small, not 
^ in. long, are when adult of a reddish brown colour, 
tortoise-shaped, and bearing all round their bodies a 
fringe of oblong white powdery wax processes. The 
adults remain stationary on the leaf, crowded closely 
together. The young ones move about on the leaf in a 
more active way. They are more yellowish, with longer 
legs and less wax on their edges. 
In very wet seasons serious losses are sustained 
by the rotting off of fruit and racemes before maturity. 
It is probable that this is due to a fungus, but 
no investigations appear to have been made on the 
subject. 
A so-called disease in the Kanara gardens is described 
by Mollison. The affected plants become unthrifty ; 
the leaves in part become yellow, and these parts wither 
and the plants have no vigour of growth. The unhealthy 
appearance was at first local, but later the disease spread 
and extended over large areas. This, Mollison thinks, 
is due to degeneration from continuous planting without 
change of seed, rotation of other crops, or fallowing. 
This is very probable, as many of the plants of the 
