105 



The Gardens which have existed longest are the Botanic Gardens 

 of Singapore, 32 years, and the next oldest are the Penang Gardens 

 now abolished. The remainder from about four to eight years. 



This is certainly unique in the history of the Gardens of the 

 Empire and indeed of the foreigen nations, too, and represents 

 a great amount of hard work by energetic men, and a great deal of 

 money thrown awa}'. 



To compare this with other gardens ; that of Peradeniya, Ce3-lon 

 was founded in 182 1 and has gone on without a break ever since, that 

 is for 89 years. That of Buitenzorg was founded in 1819 and has run 

 continuously. The Botanic Gardens at Calcutta were founded in 

 1787, Trinidad about 1827, Sydney 1788. These Gardens have all run 

 continuously on the same ground ever since they were founded. 

 There has been none of the making and abolishing after a few years 

 in the manner which seems to have characterised the Straits Settle- 

 ments. It may be taken that it requires at least 20 years with a 

 suitable staff and sufficient funds to make a practical and well-stocked 

 Botanic Gardens and the longer it lasts and the more continuous its 

 existence in a well found condition, the greater its value. The uncer- 

 tainty of continuity naturally prevents the Botanist in charge from 

 carrying out satisfactorily researches on slow-growing trees or any of 

 that most important series of investigations which require many 

 years of continuous experiment and observation for their solution, 

 But this must be obvious to every thinking person. 



The story, which is as historically accurate as the author has been 

 able to make it, will, he thinks, be read with astonishment and 

 interest by many agriculturists and botanists. It is a history of 

 enthusiasm, energy and hard work of men who devoted themselves 

 heart and soul to the progress of agriculture and built up Gardens for 

 this purpose which were destroyed ruthlessly after the enthusiast was 

 gone, with the inevitable result of delay of progress, failure of agricul- 

 ture and catastrophe.— Ed. 



HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 



Peliosanthes violacea var Ciarkei. 



This plant is figured in the Botanical Magazine for 1909, plate 

 8276, from a specimen sent to Kew from the Botanic Gardens, Singa- 

 pore. There are said to be four varieties of the species ; two of these 

 f)-om India have green flowers, and I would suggest are distinct 

 specifically the typical form violacea has a deep violet perianth, the 

 variety Ciarkei, which ranges from the Khasiya hills in Assam to 

 Singapore has dark purple flowers, almost black indeed. There is 

 a little if any other difference in the rest of the plant from the true 

 violacea of Wallich. The figure of the plant in the Botanical Maga- 

 zine is somewhat less deep and rich in colour than it is in the wild 



