169 



The old laboratory is a very plain rectangular building of one 

 large room. One end of the room is a veranda, with a dark-room 

 opening from it. On one side of the room are windows. The 

 other side and end are wall, covered with shelves and cupboards, 

 but with a door leading to another broad veranda, from which 

 opens the ofhce of the director of the laboratories. Dr. von Faber. 

 Plain laboratory tables face the windows on one side. Larger 

 tables stand in the middle of the room, but to get running water 

 one must go to the veranda. A small bookcase contains a work- 

 ing collection of books, mostly systematic. Microscopes, 

 ordinary apparatus and glassware, and reagents are provided 

 freely. Heavier apparatus is stored in outbuildings near by. 

 Native carpenters or mechanics are always ready to help with 

 the construction of special apparatus. A native servant is in 

 the laboratory, but must be addressed in the Malay language. 

 Plant material is supplied in the greatest profusion upon appli- 

 cation to the director. In fact, there seems to be almost no 

 limit to the kind or quantity of plants that the botanist may 

 ask for and receive. 



The new Treub laboratory was nearing completion during 

 our stay at the garden, and has since been opened. It is a hand- 

 some and commodious building, of the usual one-story tile-roof 

 style, but with high ceilings and plenty of windows. The ends 

 of the rectangular building are occupied by offices, a chemical 

 laboratory, dark-rooms, library, and store-rooms, while the 

 large center is the laboratory proper. It is incompletely divided 

 by partial walls, extending from the sides into the room, into 

 six compartments, three on each side. Each compartment has 

 its own window, and the style of construction assures sufficient 

 isolation to each worker, while not interfering with the free 

 circulation of air. 



One misses glass-houses from the garden buildings, but they 

 are of course unnecessary. Their place is taken, in a way, by 

 shade houses, covered with wooden lattice only, and used es- 

 pecially for orchids, ferns, begonias, and other shade-loving 

 species. Of course most of the sixteen thousand species in 

 cultivation grow in the garden with no artificial protection. 



