UTAKAMAND GARDEN. 371 



I will now proceed to remark briefly on such, parts of Mr 

 M'lvor's report as seem to me to need special notice. 



Conservatory. — The present conservatory is certainly an un- 

 sightly building, but it was erected under difficult circumstances. 

 I have requested the district engineer to include the estimate for 

 its external improvement, and for the necessary fittings and 

 repairs in the interior (which will not cost more than about 

 Es. 1000), in his next budget ; and I would recommend that, 

 under that officer's general superintendence, the work should be 

 entrusted to Mr M'lvor, who, from having been brought up at 

 Kew Gardens, is well acquainted with such edifices, and will, I 

 am sure, do the work well. 



I hope hereafter to remedy the great loss in transit from 

 Madras, but, in common with other departments, we are very 

 much at the mercy of the cart and transit owners. The com- 

 pletion of the railway will be of the greatest importance in this 

 respect ; and it will be desirable hereafter, as far as the season 

 may permit, to make Beypur the place of shipment for plants 

 to and from Europe. 



Kunur Nursery. — I trust that the inferiority of Kunur seeds 

 is only owing to the garden being pf recent formation (this is 

 only its second year), and to the difficulty hitherto experienced 

 in procuring good manure. Kuniir has great advantages in 

 position and climate ; and when the railways are open, I look to 

 it as the nursery for Southern India. I hope that manure will 

 be obtained before long from the rapidly increasing settlement. 



Kalhatti Nursery. — My objections to this nursery are, that it 

 is situated in a somewhat inaccessible position, and that being 

 on the road to Mysore, the tract of country under it will be ulti- 

 mately very fairly supplied from the Bangalore garden. It is 

 obviously undesirable to multiply nurseries and gardens unne- 

 cessarily, especially in such a limited tract as the Nilgiri range. 

 They distract the attention of the superintendent, and involve 

 additional expense. Moreover, there are few plants, likely to be 

 extensively propagated, which will grow at Kalhatti and will 

 not grow at Kunur; and for these few I doubt the expediency of 

 maintaining an additional garden at the former place. For 

 these reasons I still think the Kalhatti nursery may be given 



