C. arabica have been received through the foreign exchanges and turned over to Mr. J. W. van Leenhoff, at the coffee substation.

FIBER PLANTS.

Bulbils of Furcræa fætida have been received from Mauritius. Island through the Bureau of Plant Industry. They have been planted out near the native variety in order to prove the supposed identity therewith. One plant of Furcræa tuberosa, from Central America, has been received.

Plants of the native maguey (Furerea fætida), which are now eighteen months old from the bulbil, have leaves 5 feet long, and are growing rapidly. The 2-year-old Bahama sisal plants have 3-foot leaves.

The Bahama sisal (Agave rigida sisalina) has made a fairly good growth and is now free from the bacterial disease with which it was affected during the previous year. Numerous offsets have been set out ready for distribution.

Twelve bulbils of a plant believed to be the true Agave rigida have been received from Sneads Island, Florida.

Seeds of Bohmeria nivea have been received from the Bureau of Plant Industry.

Sansevieria zeylanica has been added to the collection.

Gossypium arboreum, from Mexico, is making a slow growth.

A plat of mixed cotton has done well. Several varieties are now being planted for a comparative test.

Specimens of ropes and cordage, prepared from various native plants at the coffee substation, have been secured for exhibition at the station office.

FOREST PLAT.

The following species have been added to the nurseries for this plat:

From Cabo Rojo, Beefwood (Casuarina equisitefolia). From Ponce, Rain-tree (Pithecolobium saman). From British Honduras, Broad-leaf Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). Through Bureau of Plant Industry, Chinese oil-nut (Aleurites cordata); Chinese oak (Quercus cornea); sugar palm (Arenga saccharifera); Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera).

From Curacao: "Cuji" and Divi-Divi (Casalpinia coriaria). From British West India stations: "Madre de Cacao" (Gliricidia maculata), Bauhinia sp., and Parkia africana.

Through the United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Forestry: Hybrid Eucalyptus and Grevillea robusta.

From Plant Improvement Gardens, Santa Ana, Cal.: Parkia roxburghii.

Nearly all the varieties set out in 1902 are now making a fair growth; the Eucalyptus spp. especially have done very well, considering the exceedingly poor soil of the plat.

About 75 species of timber trees are under trial in this plantation; 100 square feet are allowed each tree.

INSECT PESTS.

The cotton stainer, Dysdercus suturellus, has caused considerable damage in a cotton field near Sabana Grande. Aphis gossypii has been reported from only one locality as a serious pest, but it undoubtedly occurs throughout the island. The coffee aphid occurs over a wide area, if not the entire interior of the island, but does no damage. except to the tender shoots in overshaded localities. The malanga, or taro, aphid has been much less in evidence than during the previous year. Pteromalus calandra in a common parasite of the rice weevil (Calandra oryza) at the station.

During the past year no complaint of the changa (Scapteriscus didactylus) has been received at this office. The grass Paris-green bait remedy, recommended in Bulletin No. 2 of the station, is being successfully used, not only in Porto Rico, but also in the British West Indies. The bug maggot (Lonchaa chalybea) of the cassava has continued a serious pest in the tips of cassava canes. Hand picking

is the best remedy, though tobacco dust applied to the buds is effective in the dry season. The cassava tingitid (Atheas nigricornis) has been less destructive on cassava leaves than in the previous year. ¿ The black-winged white ant (Eutermes morio) has been practically exterminated in the vicinity of the station buildings; burning with kerosene was found the most reliable method.

! The striped weevil (Exophthalmus spengleri) continues in abundance in orange orchards throughout the island. Hand picking is commonly practiced, but merely serves to keep the pest in check. This weevil and a smaller species, closely related, are common in some coffee plantations where they do considerable injury to the buds and young leaves.

The tobacco leaf miner (Gelechia picipellis) did some slight damage in the experiment plats at Aguas Buenas.

Four species of Lamellicorn beetles attacked citrus and banana leaves on the north side of the island, doing more or less injury during the dry season. Hand collecting at night and the use of lime on the ground about the trunk appear successful in the Bayamon district. These beetles make numerous vertical burrows close to the base of the trunk and hide in these burrows during the daytime. It is thought that the larval stage is passed among the orange roots, though this has not yet been definitely proven.

It is estimated that the Tineid coffee leaf miner (Leucoptera coffeella), by checking the growth and destroying the leaf tissue of coffee plants throughout the island, resulted in from 5 to 10 per cent loss of last year's coffee crop. This would amount to from $150,000 to $300,000, taking into consideration merely the product of berries and not allowing for the damage to the vigor of the plant. Experiments in collecting by hand infested leaves from a certain number of isolated trees proved an entire failure; likewise spraying experiments have thus far proved ineffective in checking the ravages of this pest.

The coffee leaf miner, however, is on the decrease in several districts of the island, due very largely to the attack of a Chalcidid parasite (Chrysocharis livida) found in the coffee plats in the station grounds. The life history of this very beneficial insect is nearly worked out, but its method of oviposition is unknown. Larvæ of the parasite, however, have been found inside the bodies of Leucoptera larvæ, and it is believed that the egg is laid in or upon the half-grown larva of the leaf miner. On account of the numerous immature larvæ of the parasite found in empty burrows of the leaf miner, it appears that because of the abundance of the parasites the female frequently oviposits in larvæ that are too young to allow the complete development of the parasite, and that the parasitic larva, after having devoured its too small host, is left without food and probably dies in the burrow without reaching the pupal stage. Attempts to induce these starving parasites to feed upon Leucoptera larvæ have in all cases proved unsuccessful, even when the parasite has been partially introduced into the host larva. The full-sized larva of the parasite is about one-third the size of the host larva—that is, a little more than 1 millimeter in length. The pupal stage is normally passed inside the burrow of the leaf miner; the shining bluish black pupa is loosely attached by its posterior extremity to either the wall of the burrow or to the integument of the consumed host; one pupa was found in a cocoon of the host larva on the outside of the leaf. The imago is black with purplish reflections from the thorax; the size is about 1 millimeter; it is very active, and lives two to four days in captivity. It is doubtful whether living specimens of this parasite could be sent successfully to other islands in the West Indies where the leaf miner is a serious pest, unless, perhaps, in a Wardian case with its host, under more or less natural conditions,

FUNGOUS DISEASES.

Ascochyta nicotiana, under two or three forms, caused considerable injury to the station's tobacco plats at Aguas Buenas.

A fungus belonging to the Sphæropsideæ has been very prevalent on

banana leaves, causing minute clustered dots, beginning on the under side and extending through to the upper surface, associated with a yellowing of the surrounding area. This attack usually precedes a gradual wilting of all the leaves of the plant, but may continue for months in an immature state. A rot, probably of bacterial origin, did considerable injury to bananas fertilized with nitrogenous manures; streaks of brownish tissue indicate the course of the disease from the root bulb to the top of the pseudostem. Destroying the affected plants apparently checks the trouble, though the suckers from the old bulb grow slowly.

The tomato wilt, which has been under investigation for over two years, has not yet been definitely determined, but it certainly resembles very closely in effect the Bacillus solanacearum. It appears to be common in the West Indies and prevents the successful cultivation. of tomatoes in this region. Plants at the coffee substation, at about 1,000 feet elevation, showed only slight traces of the disease.

The American coffee disease (Stilbum flavidum) occurs very rarely. A yellow-spot fungus, in effect resembling Stilbum flavidum, occurs on “rough lemon " leaves, and may become a serious pest in orange nurseries.

White mycelial growths have been noted on the roots of cassava, yautia, yam, and coffee. In the case of coffee this fungus was usually accompanied by more or less decay of the interior of the root. This mycelial disease of the yautia root seems to be distinct from Peronospora trichotoma of the taro.

A serious disease, called locally" el mal," attacks the fibro-vascular bundles of the rhizome of yautias, especially of Xanthosoma sagittæfolia, beginning at the tip and slowly spreading into the tubers and upward through the root stalk, finally causing the decay of the latter, and occasionally reaching the leaf bases. This fungous or bacterial disease apparently does not affect the vitality of the tubers when left in situ.

A peculiar leaf disease of the yautia occurs on the older leaves, causing roundish or somewhat irregular brownish patches, showing concentric rings of a darker shade; it is much more prevalent in the dry season. Samples of this fungus were determined as Periconia Pycnospora; a Glæosporium sp. was also found in a sample sent for determination to the Bureau of Plant Industry.

A black-spored fungus occurring in roundish patches on the leaves of Canna edulis was determined as Periconia sp. The roots of Canna cdulis appear completely resistant to all fungi.

Cladosporium citri continues to be a serious pest in citrus nurseries, on: sour orange seedlings used for budding stock; it severely checks the growth of these seedlings so that the orange planter is compelled

to insert the sweet orange buds as early as possible-frequently when the stock is under 2 feet in height.

A disease apparently fungous in nature is becoming generally prevalent on the coffee leaf miner (Leucoptera coffeella) in its early larval stages. Cultures have been made with this material, but in only one case did a white mycelial growth indicate the fungous nature of this disease. The etiology of this very important disease of the most serious pest of Porto Rican coffee demands careful investigation. In the coffee plats at the station grounds about 30 per cent of the leaf miner larvæ are found dead in their burrows; at the coffee substation about 10 per cent, on an average, of dead larvæ are found.

The fungus, provisionally determined as a Sporotrichum by Prof. F. S. Earle, continues to be very plentiful on the red scale (Lecanium hemisphæricum) throughout the island, and it aids very largely in keeping this pest in check. Inoculation experiments have not proved successful thus far, probably on account of the sensitiveness of this fungus to a dry atmosphere.

The coffee leaf blight discovered in June, 1903, by Prof. F. S. Earle, and provisionally referred by him to the genus Sclerotium, is abundant in many districts in the west part of the island. In April, 1904, this disease was carefully studied at the station coffee plats by Dr. G. P. Clinton. This peculiar disease appears to attack the root system first, causing more or less decay therein, and thence ascends the trunk in the form of brownish or black mycelial threads. Upon these threads reaching the base of a leaf they begin to spread and frequently appear like a thick mass of cobweb. The base of the leaf at once turns dark brown, though the midrib and distal portion may remain green for some time. Upon the death of the leaf the petiole breaks away from the branch, but is held by the tough strands of the mycelium.

Specimens of a rare coffee leaf disease occurring in the vicinity of Arecibo have been determined as a Sphæropsis sp.

REPORT OF H. C. HENRICKSEN, ASSISTANT HORTICULTURIST.

The writer entered on duty at this station March 1 and took charge of the following lines of work, which were outlined in last year's . report: Citrus fruits, pineapples, vegetables, cacao, miscellaneous fruit orchard, tea, and rubber.

The scope of work with all of these has been considerably broadened, and the following new experiments have been started: Grapes, mangoes, aguacates, and the propagation of miscellaneous tropical fruits.