AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



No. i.] JANUARY, 1908. [Vol. VII. 



NOTES ON THE ACCLIMATIZATION OP 

 PLANTS— continued. 



Exotics. — Plants of all kinds have been introduced at times from 

 every part of the world, both from temperate and tropical regions. 



European plants. — A Denmark correspondent on one occasion 

 sent a number of seeds and a couple of boxes of moorland peat 

 containing a number of indigenous plants, such as Maianthemun, 

 Sci/la, grasses, etc. The boxes came quite open, and the plants 

 in some cases were growing. On being attended to and watered 

 a few grasses produced weak leaves and then disappeared. The Scilla 

 (apparently) had protruded two leaves for some two or three inches 

 from the bulb, during the voyage, but on arriving in Singapore 

 made no further growth remaining stationary for some weeks, after 

 which it perished. Meanwhile an oxalis with bright pink flowers 

 made its appearance in the box and made a large clump flowering 

 freely. This was evidently not an European species, but I failed 

 to identify it. It did not seed. Among the seeds sent a few 

 germinated, but the only one which developed into a plant was 



Solanum nigrum , and this developed into a form not unlike 



the world-wide S. oleraceum which indeed is said to be specifically 

 identical. It flowered and fruited. On another occasion a gentle- 

 man brought a collection of spring bulbs to Singapore and asked 

 that they should be grown in the Gardens. They included Snow- 

 drops, Crocuses, Hyacinths, Ranunculus and Tulips. Those that 

 had begun to develop leaves on the way mostly stopped and after 

 remaining quiescent for a time perished. The tulips behaved in a 

 very extraordinary way emitting enormous long and broad leaves 

 and then after some weeks perished. 



European vegetables are often introduced: — Lettuce, Cress, 

 Mustard, Watercress, Chicory and Dandelion, have all produced 

 flowers but never a fertile fruit. Coriander (a Persian strain pro- 

 bably) developed into plants of four or five inches tall, flowered and 



