Pollination interrelationships constitute vital, and often very precise, links in environmental productivity. The co-dependence of much of the native fauna and flora in these terms is cause for grave concern in the light of continuing environmental pollution. In New Brunswick, as an established case-history, wide-scale forest applications of the organophosphorus insecticide Fenitrothion have severely damaged the native pollinator fauna of lowbush blueberries, and. have apparently disrupted bird populations so that they have become unprecedented agricultural pests.

Unfortunately, little is known of the pollination interrelationships in natural or semi-natural environments. Very often the reproductive biology of the plants is incompletely known, and if pollen vectors are involved they, too, are unknown. This point is illustrated by assessing the state of knowledge of such showy plants as are emblematic in Canada (Table I).

Lethal Yellowing disease has been devastating Coconut, and presumably 14 other species of palms (including Palmyra and Date Palms), in mainland Florida since 1971. The urban environment has changed rapidly with the death of palm trees along streets, parks, and beaches. The disease is now present around the Caribbean Sea and presumably in West Africa.

Widespread injections of oxytetracycline into both diseased and healthy palms are now being carried out in Florida in an effort to control the disease temporarily. The vector has not yet been identified. ‘Malayan Dwarf’ variety and the newly developed ‘Maypan’ hybrid are resistant to the disease and are being used to replace more susceptible varieties.

The potential for environmental and economic disaster from the introduction of the disease to unaffected tropical countries, and the need for controlling its spread, are emphasized.

At the 12th General Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, held at Kinshasa, Zaire, in September 1975 (see the report in press for our next issue), a new programme was agreed upon for the Union.