Note on the Sugar-cane Disease of the 
West Indies. 
BY 
Sir WILLIAM T. THISELTON-DYER, 
K.C.M.G., C.I.E., F.R.S. 
Director , Royal Botanic Gardens , Kew. 
HE cultivation of the Sugar-cane is still, and—notwith- 
JL s.anding the competition of the Beet in temperate 
countries—is likely to remain a very important part of the 
tropical agriculture of the Empire. But of late years it has 
been hampered, as is sooner or later the fate of all cultural 
industries, by the ravages of disease. 
The problem presented to the botanist in such a case is one 
of no ordinary difficulty. He has to engage in a conflict with a 
singularly elusive enemy, and he has to discover the conditions, 
often by no means obvious, in which that enemy is most open 
to attack. And the form in which the disease, or the Fungus 
which produces it, finally presents itself is rarely one which 
admits of remedial treatment. It is necessary, therefore, to 
trace back the Fungus through its often multiform life-history, 
and so to discover the stage at which its mischievous course 
can be most readily intercepted. 
The task is difficult enough when one is face to face with 
the problem on the spot where it presents itself. It is still 
more so when the material to be studied only reaches the 
investigator after a long voyage, more or less decayed and 
infested with all the Fungi that attend decay, 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XIV. No. LVI. December, 1900.] 
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