74 



NOTES ON COLA TREES IN THE ECONOMIC 

 GARDEN, SINGAPORE. 



Ill the Economic Garden are to l)e found fourteen trees of the 

 genus Cola. There were more: hut the plantation, on the hill top^ 

 which grew badly was in chief part removed in 1917. Five of the 

 trees are thick and bush like, 7 — 8 feet high, their branches dense 

 and entangled, and carrying leaves down to the ground : they belong 

 to the species C. acuminata, using the name as used by MM. Che- 

 valier and Perrot in their " Vegetaux utiles de I'Afrique tropicale 

 fran^aise," YI, 1911. The other nine trees, judging by their bear- 

 ing, belong to the species ('. nitida: but as yet the flowers and 

 fruits of one only have come under observation for full determina- 

 tion. They are 30-40 feet high, with rather sparse branches and 

 foliage. All have suffered from the poorness of the soil and from 

 want of manure. They liave fruited at times; but, with the one 

 exception, not in 1918. The tree that has fruited and on which 

 most of the following observations have been made, is 40 feet high ; 

 its fruits were ripened continuously through May, June and July 

 to the number of about 130, which contained 314 seeds — the Cola 

 nuts of commerce. This is by no means its first crop ; but it is 

 the first that has been systematically harvested. The history of 

 the tree is unknown. The records of the Botanic Gardens show 

 tliat Cola was introdiicd in 1879 (lie])ort for that year, p. 3),. 

 and agahi in 1881 from Kew (Eeport for 1881, p. 6), and again 

 from Kew in 1893 (Eeport for 1893, p. 2). In the Report for 

 1884, it is recorded that the " African Cola nut planted in the 



Experimental nursery grew well in the alluvial soil there."^ 



Now C^antley's Experimental Forest Nursery was on the alluvial 

 soil of the Economic Garden, and it is quite evident that the tree 

 or trees to which his report referred, were where the Colas — some- 

 of them— are now; but it is difficult to make a connection between 

 any of them and Cantley's statement. One C^ola tree in that neigh- 

 bourhood flowered but did not fruit in 1892 (Report for the 3'ear, 

 p. 3). In the year 1907 a tree, probably the same one, fruited 

 hea^nly ; and, if the memories of men who have served long in the 

 Gardens are to be trusted, that tree was the one which has fruited 

 in the current year. It is Cola nitida: and therefore the introduc- 

 tion of Cola seed in 1881 would probably be of C. nitida. The 

 entry is of " Cola acuminata," a conse(|uence of the confusion which 

 has existed in the nomenclature of the Colas, whereby more than 

 the true C. acuminata passed under that name. 



Chevalier and Perrot explain the nomenclature thus. Ven- 

 tenat, while employed in describing the plants cultivated in the 

 gardens of the Malmaison palace, examined the dried material in 

 the Herbaria available to him, and found what he considered to be, 

 as others also would have done at the time, a Sterculm cultivated 

 in Mauritius, and new to seience. H^ described this plant as Ster- 

 rulia niiida, tlie description appearing in 1803. At a little time 

 ])efore this. Palisot de Heauvois had Ix^en in Benin and had got 

 another plant which he described, about the same time, i.e. in 1803,. 



