4i9 



Many cultivated plants thrive a short way from the sea which do 

 not thrive a little way inland. It is often said both in the old and 

 new world that Coconuts cannot be grown successfully 20 miles 

 inland. This is not literally true, but it not often that Coconuts 

 are to be seen any very great distance from the sea, or tidal waters. 

 It is often said too that Nutmegs must smell the sea, and Clove 

 trees must see it and certainly these plants depend greatly on the 

 proximity of the sea, and seem to require sea-breezes in order 

 for them to thrive. It is clear that this is not a question of soil only, 

 nor dryness of atmosphere, although these plants are particular 

 apparently on these points. 



Coconuts prefer sandv soil, and dry soil, but are often grown 

 satisfactorily on clayey soil with very little sand. Coconuts grown 

 in damp alluvial black river soil often grow to a full size and though 

 apparently healthy never flower or fruit, and curiously are in such a 

 case never attacked by coconut beetles. In a large Coconut estate 

 at Telok Kurau, in Singapore, there was a patch of wet ground, all 

 the trees round this patch were fine and heavily fruiting trees but 

 those on this patch though equally good looking trees showed no 

 signs of flowering nor apparently had they ever done so. When 

 they died naturally, they were found never to have been touched 

 by beetles to which the surrounding trees were liable. On a damp 

 spot along the Bukit Timah Road were a large number of Coconut 

 trees, of these a few in the drier spots fruited, but usually poorly, 

 and in the damper spots not at all. These trees too were seldom 

 if ever hurt by beetles which were abundant in the vicinity. 

 Recently the land was opened up, and more or less drained, 

 apparently for building sites, I now observe that a considerable 

 number of the trees are showing signs of attack by red beetles. 



How far the soil, dryness, and atmospheric conditions respectively 

 affect certain plants is not always easy to diagnose, and different 

 plants of the same species are certainly affected differently by their 

 surroundings. 



The Oleander grows and flowers well in Singapore town near 

 the sea and also on high and dry hills like the hill of the Lunatic 

 Asylum. It however was not amenable to cultivation in the 

 Botanic Gardens, refusing to flower and gradually dying awa) 

 till two plants, one red and one white were received from Manila. 

 To all visible appearance they were exactly like the ones g™™" 

 in Singapore town successfully but which failed in the Botanic 

 Gardens. The white one flowered but eventually d.ed away, the 

 red one on the other hand grew and flowered constantly and 

 cuttings from it did equally well. 



The differences in dryness of atmosphere between MabKi . and 

 Singapore are by no means great though the former * sa«d^o be 

 dryer yet several plants thrive in Malacca which are by no mean 

 as successful in Singapore, such are Zizyphus J^ b fC 

 there regularly but has, I think, nev 

 Mimusops Kauki of which big 



