REPORT.* 



^-K^SH- 



Natal Botanic Gardens, Berea, 

 Durban, July, 1903. 



To the President and Committee, 



Durban Botanic Society. 



Gentlemen, 



I have much pleasure in presenting my Annual Report on 

 the Botanic Gardens, this being the 22nd Annual Report that 

 I have had the honour of preparing. I have again to record 

 the occurrence of a fairly favourable season, as though the 

 earlier portion of the season was rather dry, it was not suffici- 

 ently so to do much damage to the trees and shrubs in the 

 Garden, though smaller plants and annuals suffered considerably, 

 and the growth of the young Citrus stocks was very greatly 

 retarded ; in the upper portions of the Colony the drought has 

 been more severe, and crops have been considerably damaged, 

 in many cases they have been total failures. The latter portion 

 of the season has been more favourable in the coast districts, 

 though the winter promises to be a severe one. Fortunately 

 we are seldom subject to any frost, except in the lower part of 

 the ground, and then it is but very light, and up to date none 

 has occurred, though I understand that in some parts of the 

 coast districts, in low-lying localities, the sugar canes have 

 been damaged. 



The Mango crop was again an almost total failure, probably 

 on account of the dry spell in the early part of the summer, 

 this being the second year in succession that this crop has 

 failed, an unusual occurrence with us, and probably for the 

 same reason the Litchi crop was also a total failure, but few 

 fruit were ripened, and those were almost uneatable. 



As stated in my last Annual Report, the supply of native 

 labour was, in the early part of the season, very scanty, and 

 men were almost unobtainable even at the high rate of wages 

 that were being paid by contractors and others, so that we were 

 left with scarcely enough men to carry on the ordinary work 



