STRAITS SETTLEMENTS GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, JUNE 27, 1884. 
784 
necting link. The ground now occupied by the Carpenters’ shop and 
jungle near this position would make a suitable site for an Orchid Garden, 
while the adjoining Rambei trees would afford the more delicate plants 
the requisite amount of shade. 
9 —Formation Of a Rosary.— A Rosary has been made on the site 
of the old Plant House and Office on the second terrace below the Band 
Stand, where the ground was levelled and put in order last year, and con- 
sists of a series of ten beds with grass verges, separated by six feet wide 
paths which have been covered with blue granite chips obtained from the 
Muni cipal W ork-y ard . 
10. — The total area covered by the Rosary is 1,125 square yards. The 
beds have been planted with a selection of the best Roses obtainable in the 
Colony. Among the beds, and in the general design, fourteen vases, each 
about four feet in height, have been worked in and filled with suitable 
plants. The design is a success, and makes a pleasant addition to the Gar- 
dens. The Roses have grown and flowered freely. 
11— Flower Beds and Borders— The series of flower beds men- 
tioned in my last year’s report as having been begun on the old 
Croquet Lawn in front of the Aviaries, have been extended along the 
terraces immediately below the Band Stand, which surround the Stand on 
two sides. It consists of twelve designs worked into an harmonious whole, 
and contains about 20,000 plants in variety. 
12. — The more showy portion of this floral series has been copied 
largely by native gardeners and others, each apparently selecting what 
seemed to meet his own views. 
13. — A new shrubbery border six yards long has been made along 
the bamboo hedge below the new Office and Exhibition House, and planted 
with ornamental trees and shrubs. The other borders have been dug over 
several times during the year and maintained in good order. 
14. — Fernery — Next to the work connected with the formation of 
the Exhibition House, the excavations for a Fernery have been the hardest 
work of the year. The ground selected for this purpose lies beneath the large 
trees to the East of the Band Stand, and in a corner formerly under jun- 
gle and rubbish of all sorts. The area of the ground here cleared was 
17,000 square feet. Soil to the amount of 11,520 cubic feet has been exca- 
vated from the paths made in the ground. This soil has been thrown up in 
heaps, forming figures of all shapes, in which it is intended to work stones, 
tree stumps, &c. s to keep up the soil and retain moisture for the plants. 
15. — About one-third of this work was completed when materials 
suddenly ran out, and, through want of funds, we have been unable to 
finish the rock work up to date. The portions finished, however, have 
been planted with Ferns, Mosses, Palms, &c., and the stems of the trees 
covered with Mexican Creepers, Orchids, &c. The work, as far as com- 
pleted, looks well. The sudden running short of funds, however, is 
disheartening, and, I think, the Garden vote ( $10,000 ) is now manifestly 
too small for the demands made upon it, however well suited it may 
have been to the wants of the times when first granted. 
10. — Herbaceous Garden. — A Herbaceous Garden has been laid 
out on the land formerly used as a deer paddock, on the West side of the 
main lake. This land has always been overrun with scrub, lalang, &c., 
which have been cleared off and the ground turfed over and laid out in 
beds labelled with the names and orders of the plants they contain. 
