289 



Buildings. — The need for a seed house is intensified, and we also 

 want badly a new plant house. We still have to pack and despatch 

 our plants in the open air, getting drenched to the skin when it rains. 



Roads, Fences, 8fc, — Sixteen chains of Eoads from the Superinten- 

 dent's House down have been repaired, the gradient here being steep 

 this piece of road requires repairing oftener than the other parts 



The path through the Divi-Divi avenue has also been regravelled 

 and most of the paths in the nursery. Very little has been done to the 

 fences most of these having been thoroughly repaired last year. 



Ornamental Plants. 



Rcse Garden. — The rose garden has been kept in good order, the 

 number of plants of the better kinds has been increased, and the 

 number of the inferior kinds decreased. 



A few good roses are ;always popular, and plants of them are always 

 in great demand. 



We have given up attempting to raise plants of the good varieties by 

 cuttings, raising them wholly by circumposition. By this method we 

 get a strong, healthy plant without wasting wood, a great feature, as 

 nearly all the good roses are slow growers. 



Carinas, fyc. — Cannas still continue to prove what a valuable class of 

 flowering plants they are for our dry district. 



All the ornamental plants specially mentioned in last year's 1 eport 

 have done well, except Chickrassia tabularis, which died on being 

 removed to its proper geographical position. 



Pot plants. — The quantity and quality of these have maintained the 

 standard of former years. 



Orchids. — The orchids have made a grand show throughout the 

 whole year. 



The following have flowered for the first time: — Laelia tenebrosaj 

 Peristeria elata ; Bifrenaria aurantiaca ; Epidendrum osmanthum ; 

 Cattleya Sckroderae ; Laelia glauca ; Epidendrum bicornutum ; Den- 

 drobium giganteum var superbum. 



Laelia glauca is considered a difficult species to flower in cultivation, 

 the only plant which flowered at Hope was one growing on one of ihe 

 Divi-Divi trees, those in baskets did not flower. They will be trans- 

 planted to the trees. Many of the epiphytal orchids have been found 

 to thrive better when grown on blocks of tree fern than when grown in 

 the usual peat mixture ; this I ascribe to two reasons, first that the 

 tree ferns do not rot and become nasty in the same way that the peat 

 so rapidly does, and secondly that the roots of the orchids being able to 

 bury themselves deeply in the tree-fern-blocks, are not damaged by 

 cockroaches as they so often are in the baskets ; the cockroaches are 

 easily able to dig among the peat and eat off the soft young points of 

 the roots. A new floor has been put into the orchid house, which has 

 greatly improved the appearance of it, as well as enabled visitors to 

 walk through to see the orchids dryshod. The fern house still con- 

 tinues to be a great source of attraction, especially to visitors from 

 abroad. 



Geographical plan of Gardens. — The work of laying out Hope as a 

 Botanic Garden on a design to follow the natural Geographical distri- 

 bution of the plants to be grown there, is a work of large dimensions,. 



