THE FLORA OF SINGAPORE. 35 



well known Indian tree, and it is probable that the locality is 

 quite wrong. 



Col. Farqvkar, the first Resident of Singapore, and John 

 Prince, Resident Councillor in 1827, who took a little interest in 

 the botany of the island, are commemorated in the names of 

 some plants, e. g. Myristica Farquharia?ia, and Erycibe Princei, 

 but little was done in botanical research for many years. In or 

 about 1839, Hugh Cuming well known for his immense botanical 

 and conchologieal collections in the Philippines, visited Singa- 

 pore and also ascended Mount Ophir. While in the Straits he 

 seems to have chiefly devoted himself to collecting orchids, and 

 to have sent home a number of live ones, among which were 

 Coelogyne Cunnngi, and Dendrobium longicolle. William Lobb, 

 orchid collector for Messrs Veitch, visited Penang and Singapore 

 in 1845, but as mentioned in Journal 25. p. 166, his specimens 

 from the Straits Settlements, Java and India were all mixed up 

 in distribution, so that his localities as quoted in books are quite 

 doubtful, Surgeon-General Maingay during- bis residence in 

 Singapore made extensive collections, but many of these again 

 were irregularly labelled, and some mentioned in the Flora of 

 British India as from Singapore were probably either collected 

 in Malacca or Penang. 



Mr. Jfurton the first head of the present Botanic Gardens, 

 1875 to 1880, collected a number of plants, of which a few 

 were sent to Kew, and a few, chiefly ferns, are still in the Bota- 

 nic Gardens Herbarium. X. Canting, who succeeded him, em- 

 ployed collectors and obtained a very large number of speci- 

 mens, but unfortunately hardly any were strictly localised, and 

 many labelled from Singapore in the herbarium, are either culti- 

 vated plants or from some part of the peninsula, so that in most 

 cases I have been unable to quote safely from his herbarium. 



Among other collectors whose names appear in books, asso- 

 ciated to a small extent with Singapore plants, should be men- 

 tioned, Dr. Thomas Oxley, who wrote some papers in Logan's 

 Journal, one of which dealt with the Flora of Singapore, but 

 chiefly with Economic plants, while other papers treat of Nut- 

 megs and Gutta percha. He seems to have collected plants, 

 saying that he had collected between 40 and 50 orchids, but 

 what became of his collections and manuscripts, I cannot find 



