34 THE FLORA OF SINGAPORE. 



amount of show that the blossoms make in the great masses of 

 foliage. 



Botanists. The number of botanists who have collected or 

 studied the flora of Singapore is even more limited than that of 

 Penang. The first of them was naturally Sir Stamford Raffles 

 who aided by William Jack made extensive collections, all or al- 

 most all of which were destroyed in the burning of the " Fame." 

 (For an account of Jack and some others of the Singapore bota- 

 nists, see Journal 25, p. 163). Shortly after the founding of Sing- 

 apore Nathaniel Wallich came to Singapore to recuperate after 

 his great Nepaul expedition. He remained here about five 

 months and established the first Botanic Garden, Nov. 1822, 

 being Superintendent of it. This Garden, consisting of 48 acres, 

 included the Government Garden on what is now known as Fort 

 Canning Hill. After he returned to Calcutta, Jan. 1823, Dr. 

 Montgomerie took charge of the Garden till 1827. Wallich 

 seems to have promised to send an assistant from Calcutta Gar- 

 dens, but did not do so. The Garden, which chiefly contained 

 Nutmegs and Cloves, was alolished later, and no trace of it re- 

 mains. Dr. Wallich seems to have taken some interest in the 

 development of Singapore, and Was one of a committee of three 

 to fix on the site of the town. He built a house, Botany Hall, 

 to stay in during his residence here. 



His collection of dried plants was an extensive one, and 

 was eventually distributed with the rest of the East India Com- 

 pany's herbarium. The greater number of species which he 

 discovered here I have been able to find still in Singapore, but 

 some appear to have quite vanished. This is not surprising 

 when it is remembered that at that time the district in which he 

 was collecting, viz. the neighbourhood of the town, was thick 

 jungle, of which nearly every trace has now disappeared under 

 cultivation. In his Catalogue many of the plants are localised 

 " Singapore et Penang," and as I note that many of these are 

 strictly hill plants occurring at a higher elevation than there 

 is in Singapore, I take it that these plants were in a collection 

 of which the exact locality was lost, and that the label perhaps 

 should have been rather " Singapore or Penang." Some few 

 however of the specimens labelled as from this region have never 

 since been found in the peninsula, e. g. Xylia dolabriformis, a 



