The pineapple scurf-scale Aulacaspis bromelice , Kerner, is des- 
cribed and figured in the Cape Agricultural Journal (XVI, p. ioo,) it 
is a greyish white scale nearly circular and flat. It has long been 
known in European pineries and seems to have been accidentally 
introduced into South Africa on a pine from Madeira. It is stated 
to be a very serious pest and to have destroyed pineapple cultiva- 
tion in Madeira. It infests both sides of the leaf of the pineapple 
and is easily seen. I do not know of its occurring in the Straits, 
but it occurs in Africa, Europe and Hawaii. 
Fruit rot . — This disease is very common here, and has been 
well described by Mr. Tryon (Queensland Agricultural Journal 
1898, p. 458) under the name of Care-rot, a very misleading name 
as that part of the pine which is commonly known as the care is 
never affected by it. Fruit affected by this may appear to have 
ripened unevenly, patches on the surface remaining green while the 
rest of the fruit possesses the orange or red color of ripeness, but 
often there is nothing on the outside to show that inside there is 
decay. Occasionally again there is a depression or hole in the sur- 
face above the diseased portion. On cutting the pine across, it is 
seen that one or more of the segments, botanically one or more 
fruit is rotten, the placenta and walls of the ovary decayed or very 
often dr)' and withered up leaving a hole in the flesh. Usually there 
is more than one of these affected in a diseased pine, . but the 
disease does not spread to the core of the fruit nor from one fruit- 
let to another. The disease is due to the attacks of a fungus allied 
to Monilia Candida Pers. which seems to enter the fruit by some 
wound, such as that caused by the mile above described. I11 a pine 
thus diseased taken from a factory I found a mite very similar to 
that described and figured by Mr. Tryon, and also a very small 
species of the order Collcmboia , a very small semi-transparent white 
insect, which did not apparently possess the spring apparatus of 
most species of that order. I bis disease here however is said by 
Mr. Landau to be caused by a beetle. In any case it appears that 
whatever insect inflicts the wound the real destruction is caused by 
the fungus. Mr. Landau informs me that the disease is common in 
low ground but rare in the dryer" hilly fields. Fruit-rot though not 
completely destroying the fruit, spoils it for sale purposes, and in 
tinning the parts decaying have to be excised. In some factories in 
the case of pines so diseased the fruit is preserved in the form of 
chunks or cubes. The decayed bits being cut out and thrown away. 
Broken heart is the name given in the Straits to a somewhat 
similar disease which ho vever commences under the crown ofleaves 
at the top of the fruit. A black spot appears and increasing the 
decay forms a hole in the core about an inch or more deep running 
downwards. A gummy matter is exuded into the hollow. In the few 
examples of this disease I have seen, I saw no insects but it seems 
probable that the decay arises from some injury probably caused 
by an insect in the crown. It chiefly occurs in wet lands like the 
last disease, rarely in a dry hilly plantation. Mr. LANDAU informs 
me that this disease is propagated by using suckers from an infected 
