7 
When one thinks that not only is the value of a tree 
influenced by the number, size and quality of the nuts produ¬ 
ced but also by its inherent power of producing 1 the largest 
number of female flowers at the shortest periodical interval, 
one can measure the importance of selection in Seychelles. 
The owner of Silhouette Island showed me three coconut palms, 
growing in his yard, which had been set out 6 years ago by his 
friends and by himself in order to test which tree would flower 
first, from three nuts taken at random from the same tree and 
even from the same bunch. These three trees, which are now 
in bearing, produce very different nuts, some nuts are oblong 
in one tree and round in the other while outlie third tree inter¬ 
mediate nuts are short stalked instead of hanging down as in 
the two others. Such ’a wide variation can only have been 
produced by a great variability in the pollination of the mother 
plant by its numerous neighbours which are of different types. 
This variation is in the way of selecting good varieties but 
there is no reason why the selection should not commence on 
estates which are not likely to change hands. With this end 
in view, it is proposed, on Government land, to interplant trees 
selected for their large nuts although short in the number of 
female flowers, such as Ceylon varieties, together with local 
strains of known type such ns the Coco raisin which produce 
such a great number of female flowers that sometimes as many 
as dO nuts are counted in one bunch. 
Variations in. the yield of copra per 1000 nuts are also 
being recorded, from widely different localities, in order to be 
able to classify the trees growing in all parts of Seychelles 
accor ling to their merit. This, in future, will also be mate¬ 
rially of great assistance in the work of selection. 
li is not however to be denied that there are a certain 
number of parasitic diseases which damage coconut palms in 
many localities and which are instrumental in beeping down 
the cro s. 1 can mention, with reference to these parasitic 
diseases investigated during the year, that the stem bleeding 
diseise caused by a fungus {Thievalopsis Ethacetious) is far 
from being kept under control. As an example I can quote an 
estate newly purchased by the Crown for the Wireless Station 
on which for the requirements of the work it was necessary 
to cut down full grown coconut palms of all ages. Fully 50o/o 
of the trees cut down were found to be attacked by the disease 
in question with the result that the stem were ratten for seve¬ 
ral feet of their length. Trees younger than 20 years were 
those which were more seriously diseased. It cannot he doubt¬ 
ful that the bearing power of such trees is reduced to a mini¬ 
mum and that they serve as breeding grounds for the transmis¬ 
sion of the disease to other estates. 
The abundant rains registered for the last few years caused 
tall weeds to grow beyond coutrol on a few estates, on which 
I found, in many cas^s, the bases of tlm stems to b> entirely 
decomposed both by the stem bleeding disease and by the 
attacks of the Melitomma beetles. The trees were so diseased 
that many of them died out from the supply of water being cut 
off from the roots. In these cases the palms seemed to suffer 
from a root disease and they were suffering so much from the 
shortage of the water supply to their crowns, that the higher 
parts of the stems, although sound, were considerably reduced 
in size and shrunken. 
In one case, several palms died out from a disease sugges¬ 
tive of the bud rot disease, which attacks coconuts all over the 
world and Pal my rah palms in India. vi t y sympooms of the 
disease which has so often been described, were present but the 
tre-s examined had been suffering ioi such a long time that 
definite investigations were made impn -sibe. These trees have 
been cut down and burnt and their neighbours h ive been placed 
under observation. In that locality, the Kh uoeeios beetles, 
were very common as they are on all estates where rubbish 
and distillery refuse accumulate. 
On the same estate, a tree was found suff ring from the 
little leaf disease but that tree was not li indie ipped to a great 
extent by it, as only one whorl of leaves was attached, the pro¬ 
ceeding and succeeding whorls being very nealthy. I noticed, 
in some cases, that the peculiar appearance o^' the little leaf 
disease, which is the shortage and curling of the leaflets, was 
due to mechanical causes on palms other than the coconut. Iu 
