AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. io] OCTOBER, 1907. [Vol. VI. 
THE HERBARIUM. 
This month we give a photograph of the Herbarium and Museum 
y; building put up in the Gardens in 1903 at a cost of $ 5 ,926.00. 
The little building measures 100 feet by 28 feet, and is divided 
into two portions, the larger of which contains the herbarium, the 
smaller a collection of specimens of fibres, rubbers, dammars, 
rattans and other useful local products. The collection of wood 
specimens is also housed in this building. The pillars of the verandah 
and the ornamental work around it is made of branches and stems 
of the rough barked Tembusu tree Fagrma fragrans , 
The importance of forming a collection of local vegetable 
produce for reference and study is recognized by all Botanic 
Establishments and an attempt was made to obtain a suitable 
building as early as 1884 and at later dates but these were 
unsuccessful. There being no place to even store these useful 
products till 1903, to form an adequate representative collection 
such as is possessed by other Botanic Gardens was useless. 
Mr. James Collins, the first Government Botanist, well known for 
his Report on the Caoutchouc of Commerce, made a good collection 
of gums and resins, rubbers, fryits, drugs, etc., which was kept for 
some years in the Raffles Museum, but eventually transferred to 
the Museum of the Botanic Gardens. Other specimens were 
collected later, as means was found to store them. The coilection 
of wood specimens was commenced in 1889 and continually 
I specimens were added, making it a very fairly complete collection 
of local timbers nearly all accurately identified with their scientific 
names. 
The Herbarium was started by Mr. MURTON, the first head of the 
Gardens, but Mr. COLLINS had brought a number of dried plants 
from England, mostly from Ward’s collections and containing 
specimens from India and the peninsula collected by WALLICH 
and WIGHT as well as many European, Australian and American 
plants. Many of these were in poor condition and had been 
