11 
61. Mr. Chew Wee Lek continued his study of the Moraceae while at 
Cambridge reading for a higher degree. Dr. Furtado sorted out and renamed 
where necessary the following genera: Ardisia, Maesa, Embelia and Barring- 
tonia. A number of new species were described for the first time in the 
Gardens’ Bulletin 17 (2), December 1959, as a result of this work. Dr. Furtado 
also was chiefly responsible for editing the posthumous publication of five 
new dipterocarp species from Borneo in the same issue. 
62. Miss Chang Kiaw Lan took charge of the mycological collection 
which had not been added to nor studied since Mr. Corner retired in 1946. 
Collections were sorted out on the taxonomic system of Clements and Shear 
(' The Genera of Fungi , 2nd edition, 1931). Many new collections were made 
during the year but identification presents difficulties owing to shortage of 
mycological literature in the Gardens’ Library. Mastering the latest methods 
of identification based on microscopic analysis and colour reactions with stains 
is a research in itself and it is hoped this officer may go overseas for training 
in these developments. The number of mycologists in Singapore and Malaya 
has been seriously depleted in recent years by retirements and it is an urgent 
necessity to maintain an adequate expertise on this subject as, inter alia , plant 
protection and plant pathology depends in a large measure on a knowledge of 
fungi. 
63. It is a pleasure to record co-operation with persons outside the 
Gardens’ staff who are studying the taxonomy of local plants. Mr. Tan Ah 
King of Midland Estate, Kulai, Johore, has been studying palms in the field 
and has collected specimens for the Singapore herbarium. Palms, particularly 
rotans, are of considerable economic importance and because of the straggly 
length of their stems, often intertwined with a half dozen or so tree canopies, 
and because of their acute thominess, they are a very difficult group to study. 
64. Dr. Anne Johnson of the Botany Department of the University of 
Malaya has been working on the Sphagna of Malaysia and her monograph 
describing twelve species, three of them new, and one new variety was pub- 
lished in the Gardens’ Bulletin 17 (2). 
65. Dr. E. C. Abbe, Professor of Botany of the University of Minnesota 
and Mrs. L. Abbe of Department of Biology, Macalister College, St. Paul, 
Minnesota spent three weeks in Singapore in October and made use of the 
herbarium facilities prior to setting out on a 6-month expedition in the Fede- 
ration of Malaya, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia to study Fagaceae (Oak 
family) in the field. 
66. The Druids who developed a culture in central and western Europe 
before the Roman invasions of Gaul, Iberia and Britain took their name from 
the oak, vast forests of which covered Europe at that time. ( Druidh , Gaelic, 
Men of Oak). In more recent times the value of oak timber in northern Europe 
and temperate North America has had a great economic importance and 
popular glamour. Even the vestige of druidic rites persists in the Christian 
usage of mistletoe at Christmas. It is little wonder therefore that many people, 
botanists of temperate countries included, think of the oaks as essentially 
typical of northern temperate regions. In fact, however, the family is more 
tropical than temperate and has probably had its origin in South-east Asia, 
where the order is particularly well represented. It is to be hoped that when 
the results of the Abbes’ field work is published a very important chapter will 
be added to our knowledge of the regional flora on a group of plants of which 
so far too little is known. 
\2/ t rs 
