REPORT 



Botanic Gardens, Berea, 

 Durban, July, 1905. 



To the President and Committee, 



Durban Botanic Society. 



Gentlemen, 



I have the honour of presenting my Twenty-fourth Annual 

 Report on the work of the Botanic Gardens and Herbarium 

 under my charge, and taken as a whole I venture to think 

 that the Report is not altogether an unfavourable one. We 

 have had times of drought, during which the plants have 

 suffered to some extent, but the losses were but very few. We 

 have also had on two occasions very heavy rains with high 

 winds, the first, which occurred in December, caused but little 

 damage to us ; the rain fell in torrents for some time ; cut up the 

 walks and washed down the soil in many places, but as it was 

 not accompanied by high winds little further damage was done 

 The next flood, which occurred on the night of May 31st, was 

 much more serious, as the wind reached to a heavy gale and did 

 very serious damage in our vicinity, but we escaped compara- 

 tively lightly, two trees only were blown down, viz. : one of 

 Euclea natalensis, and one of a native species of Euphorbia, but 

 as we have duplicates of each in the Garden the loss was not a 

 serious one. A Palm, Arenga saccharifera, which has been in 

 the Garden for many years, and was for the first time bearing 

 fruit, was blown over, but not quite dislodged from the ground 

 It is more than 30 feet high, but has been raised into position 

 again, and it is hoped that it may recover. Numbers of 

 branches were broken from the trees, but none were very 

 seriously injured. Our rain gauge unfortunately overflowed, 

 but we understand that more than 10 inches of rain fell in a very 

 few hours. The Abstract of Meteorological Observations 

 annexed hereto by the kindness of the Government Astronomer 

 will show that 11*12 inches of rain fell in the month, and that 

 the total rainfall for the year was 4203 inches. 



It has been stated by some that is the heaviest rainfall that 

 has been noted in Natal, at any rate in so short a time, and 



