in tropical institutions, held its third meeting at the Singapore Botanic Gardens 
during 28th-30th June. The Committee consisted of: 
Dr. A1 Smith (Chairman) — Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, U.S.A. 
Dr. Ray Fosberg (Secretary) — Pacific Science Project, National Science 
Foundation, Washington, U.S.A. 
Sir George Taylor (Member) — Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 
England. 
Prof. Dr. H. J, Lam (Member) — Professor emeritus of Botany, Leiden 
University, and lately Director, *s Rijksherbarium, Leiden. 
Mr. H. M. Burkill (Co-opted adhoc Member) — Director, Botanic Gardens, 
Singapore. 
The four regular members of the Committee travelling to Singapore from 
diverse starting points and by diverse routes singly visited a total of 25 herbaria 
en route, and then foregathered in Singapore to see the Singapore herbarium 
and to prepare a general report on all herbaria visited. The Committee’s first 
meeting in 1961 was in general an exploratory one held at Leiden, Holland, to 
decide ways and means. Their second in 1962 was held at Sao Paulo in Brazil. 
So it is a matter of some pride that their third, so early in the life of the 
Committee, was held in Singapore, and of considerable gratification that the 
Committee found well of Singapore. In fact in the old world tropics, the 
Singapore herbarium holds a vital key position in tropical botany, and this 
is recognised by the Committee in meeting here. The Committee had interesting 
and useful discussions with Dr. Toh Chin Chye, Deputy Prime Minister of 
Singapore, and Mr. Tan Kia Gan, Minister for National Development. 
HORTICULTURE 
XX. GARDENS MAINTENANCE 
39. The first ten months of the year witnessed a severe shortage of 
rainfall, of which there was a little over a half of the normal amount. This 
followed on a period of six years of subnormal rainfall. Many persons have 
enquired how the Gardens managed for a supply of water when the Municipal 
supply to the whole of Singapore was severely rationed. It is worth recording 
for general information that the Gardens have an internal distribution system 
for water pumped from the Gardens’ Lake. This system was installed many 
years ago, before there was piped water available in the Tanglin area. Though 
the level of the lake receded by about 18 inches, the Gardens never had any 
shortage of water. The source of the Lake water is in Tyersall Estate, and this 
source did actually go dry towards the end of the drought and the reduced 
capacity of the Lake would have failed to tide over the situation had the 
drought continued much longer. Though the Gardens did not therefore go 
short of water for its pot culture which received hand watering, the prolonged 
dry weather did make the year a difficult one for normaf husbandry. In 
compensation, however, flowering trees and shrubs such as Flame of the 
Forest ( Delonix regia), bougainvilleas, cassias and others maintained prolonged 
and continuous flowering. Curiously, the New Guinea Creeper (Mueuna 
bennettii), which normally flowers about six times during the year, managed 
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