During the heavy rainfall on December 14th, one of the 

 dwarf walls of the Fernery fell in, but without doing much 

 damage. It was erected again by our own staff, and this time 

 the wall has been built 9 inches thick instead of 4| inches as 

 before, the whole, with the exception of one wall, being now 

 9 inches thick. 



As you are aware, the erection of the new Conservatory 

 has not yet been commenced, for various reasons, but the plan, 

 kindly draw 7 n by Mr. W. E. Robarts, is now in the hands of 

 the Hon. Secretary, and I hope that the work will soon be 

 commenced, especially as considerable repairs are urgently 

 needed to the existing house, which cannot well be undertaken 

 until the new house is ready to receive the plants. I would 

 also point out that the roof and outside wood work of the 

 Curator's residence requires another coat of paint, the material 

 used in coating the roof having evidently been of inferior 

 quality, as is proved by the fact that the roof of the Gardener's 

 office and store, which was painted by our own staff, still 

 remains in perfect condition. Some part of the exposed wood 

 work of the Curator's residence, not having been properly 

 painted, is beginning to decay, and will have to be renewed. 



The enamelled plant labels, alluded to in my last report, 

 have so far been found quite satisfactory ; they are very 

 conspicuous, neat and clean, and of considerable use to visitors 

 as well as to ourselves, and I would suggest that further 

 supplies be obtained year by year until all the trees and shrubs 

 in the Gardens are furnished with them. 



In my Report for 1893, it was stated that the heavy gale 

 of September 28th, in that year had damaged or destroyed 

 several trees in the Garden, but I am now pleased to be able to 

 say that the most valuable of them have now quite recovered. 

 Ggcos plumosa, which lost its crown of leaves, is now looking as 

 well as ever, also Loxostylis alata, the only tree we have of the 

 species, and Tectona grandis, the " Teak " tree, in consequence 

 of the removal of the large Acacia which quite overshadowed it, 

 now looks better than ever, but will, I fear, never make a good 

 tree, as our climate does not appear to be suited to it, still we 

 are glad to have preserved the only specimen we have of the 

 species. 



Amongst the plants reported as having been put out in the 

 Garden during 1894, were a number of Acacias, chiefly 

 Australian species, reared from seed obtained from that country 

 in response to my request. I regret now to have to report that 

 a large number of them have been destroyed by white ants, 

 and I fear that before long but few of them will be left. It 

 seems, therefore, quite useless to plant either gums or acacias 

 on ground so infested by white ants as the present site of the 



