7. Dr. Chew Wee-Lek was awarded a travel grant by the Royal Society 
and Nuffield Foundation of London which enabled him, while taking casual 
leave, to visit many European herbaria to study collections of Urticaceae 
and literature not available in Singapore. The Department gratefully ac- 
knowledges this valuable assistance. 
VI. TRAINEES 
8. Departmental facilities were, as usual, made available to trainees 
from other overseas and local organisations. Three persons from overseas 
were at the Gardens for varying periods under Singapore Government spon- 
sored Colombo Plan Fellowships. Mr. Munir abid Chaudhury, of the Depart- 
ment of Botany, University of Sind, West Pakistan, who arrived in 1963 on a 
senior fellowship, continued his studies throughout the year. Two other 
trainees came from Thailand on junior fellowships to study horticulture. 
They were Mrs. Sompian Kasamsap and Mr. Sanan Khumlert, both of 
Kasetsart University, Bangkok. The former stayed six weeks and the latter 
three months. 
9. Mr. C. Velupillay, Field Assistant, Botanical Division, Rubber 
Research Institute of Malaya, was given a three months course in general 
horticultural methods. Nine trainees were accepted from the Labour Depart- 
ment under the Retraining and Rehabilitation schemes for disabled persons 
for a course of instruction in elementary gardening. There is a great dearth 
of gardeners for employment by householders, and many labourers posing as 
gardeners are simply grass slashers. This Department would welcome, and 
could readily accept, many more trainees. 
VII. WORKS AND BUILDINGS 
10. The demolition of the old herbarium building, the commencement 
of which was recorded in the Report for 1963 (para. 9), was completed, and 
reconstruction was carried out on the same site. The whole operation was 
completed by June, and the building was handed over to the Department on 
1st July. Acknowledgement is made to the Director of Public Works and his 
architects and staff, and to the contractor, for the smoothness and expedition 
with which the job was completed. 
11. An official opening ceremony was conducted on 24th October when 
Mr. Chan Chee Seng, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social 
Affairs declared the building open. Instead of a formal unlocking of the 
main door, or a formal cutting of a tape across it, Mr. Chan was invited to 
cut a branch of Kopsia singaporensis var., a plant of which was placed in 
a pot at the doorway. A commemorative herbarium label was kindly prepared 
by the Government Printer and has been used to mark the specimen taken 
from this branch for laying in the Singapore herbarium, and to go with the 
100 duplicates sent out on a world- wide distribution to other herbaria. 
12. A chain-link fence 800 feet long was put up enclosing the potting 
yard. This area, in which the gardening equipment is kept, had for years been 
a seriously embarrassing security risk. A second piece of chain-link fencing, 
1,900 feet long, was put up on the Gardens perimeter along Tyersall Avenue 
from the drive entrance to the Director’s quarters to the junction of Tyersall 
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