The big trees shading the Dell on the north are Cedrela guianensis and Samanea Saman {Pithecolobium Saman). 
The latter bears, in quantity, the aroid Rhodospatha filamentosa. The thicker stems of the aroid climb by their roots 
up the tree trunks, then give rise to slender stems, which have no rigidity, but hanging, reach the earth, where, if they 
succeed in rooting, they give rise to another stout well-fed stem that climbs the nearest vertical object. 
Smaller trees in this group are : — Filicium decipienSf Pittosporum ferrugineum, and Flacourtia jangomas. 
THE LAKE-SIDE PATH 
The Lake-side Path runs an approximately direct course from the Main Gate Road, in its second section, to the 
Six-ways, skirting the upper part of the Lake and the Dell, and passing between Lawns P and S. Near it at the Lake 
end are Canarium rufum, Warszewiczia coccinea and Dendrocalamus pendulus. The Canarium has a fruit in composition 
like the Kenari nut, but too small to serve as a table nut. The Warszewiczia is a pretty climber of Trinidad. The 
Dendrocalamus is a very graceful bamboo of the Malay Peninsula ; it hangs out over the water. 
The big trees nearby are Eugenia grandis. This species was adopted in Singapore in the seventies as the chief 
road-side shade-tree, at a time when the roads in the island were bordered by miles of waste grass-land. Long stately 
avenues were then produced, but they have become broken now. 
Hibiscus mutabilis occurs bedded by the side of the path ; and a little beyond it a lesson in geographic botany is 
given by the smallness of two trees, one Sapindus mukorossi, the Soap-nut, and the other, Machilus nanmu, the Chinese 
Coffin tree. Both are at home in south-western China, and the former, by cultivation, has been extended across 
northern India and into Japan. Their poor state indicates how widely our climate differs from that which suits them. 
THE OFFICE RING ROAD 
The Office Ring Road is a loop which, taking off from the Main Gate Road, circles round the newer Office Buildings 
and joins the Office Gate Road. Formerly in the centre of the loop were the Monkey Houses ; and shading trees 
were planted about them which still persist. Where the western half leaves the Main Gate Road there stands the 
bush of the beautiful Leguminous Amherstia nobilis, already mentioned, followed by two other plants of the same 
family, Brownea grandiceps and Saraca thaipingensis, Brownea grandiceps is a beautiful tree of Venezuela and Amherstia 
^ 25 — 
