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- ears’ apprenticeship here before obtaining their present appointments and are 
useful men. As t have been absent from Penang about a month and-a-halt at 
<Iifferent times during the year l wish to record the satisfactory manner in which the 
work has been done during my absence. 
2. Besides other work MAHOMAD Hussain has made a considerable number ot 
drawings of new or imperfectly known plants in which he is su icient v pro cten 
make- it desirable that his whole time should be devoted to this work. 
The supply of gardeners and coolies is by no means all that could be wished. 
Changes are frequent and at times it has been difficult to obtain sufficient tabour 
owing to the demand for railway and other work where the pay is better. and this 
is the experience of most persons engaged in Agricultural pursuits. 
j Since the German line of Steamers commenced calling at this port, the 
number of European travellers visiting this Garden has increased as many as twenty 
gharry-loads sometimes coming from one of these boats, and there has always 
been something of interest for them to see. 
5. On the whole I think the Orchid House lias been brighter this year than 
usual. From July to the end of the year one of the side stages was kept full ot 
flower with large number of Calanthe veratrifolia , C . vestita , C. rosea, C. ruoens, 
Habenaria, Carnea and Phalmnopsis violacea ; with which were interspersed in lesser 
numbers as they came in flower such things as Angrecums, Cattleyas, Vandas, Den- 
drobiums, /Erides, Erias, Miltonia Roezlii, Dilochia Cantleyii and various others. 
6. While devoting a good deal of attention to the cultivation and determination 
of plants of botanical interest from the surrounding Islands and mainland, the more 
showy and to some visitors the more interesting, garden forms are not neglected. 
Caladiums of which we have a first class collection, are well grown and much admired, 
and the same may be said of Palms, Ferns, Aroids and other ornamental foliage plants. 
Flowering plants, especially Annuals, are not easy to grow during the rams but from 
November to March we can do a good many things that it is quite impossible to grow 
satisfactorily during the other months. 
7 Contributions of plants or seeds have been received during the year from the 
Royal Gardens, Kew, the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, Ceylon, Singapore, Brisbane and 
Honcrkoncr The Agri-Horticultural Societies of Calcutta, Rangoon, and Madras ; from 
Messrs. F & Sander & Co., Messrs. Jas. Veitch & Sons, Messrs. Damman & Co., 
Messrs. Chatterjee and C. Maries. Other contributors are Messrs. Baker, Perak, 
Buttikoffer, Sumatra, Burckardt, Sumatra, Birch, Penang, Cundall, Manila, 
Derry Perak. Goldham, Perak, Hallifax, Bindings, Logan, Penang, Moore, 
Rangoon, PECHE, Moulmein, SCHMIDT, Sumatra, STEPHENS, Perak, VerSMANN, 
Sumatra, Yapp, plants from Gunong Inas. 
8. Of recently introduced economic plants, the most promising is Kickxia 
Africa na of which six small plants were brought from Kew in November, 1899. After 
nursin^ these in pots for two months they were planted out and the largest is now 
over four feet high with astern nearly an inch in diameter. Landolphia flonda, 
obtained from Kew at the same time, has made shoots twelve feet long and com- 
menced twining up the trees. Castllloa elasHca does no good in this Garden. We 
have tried it m both sun and shade but it refuses to make progress under either 
condition. 
o Improvements and extension of the Garden, so far as funds permit, have 
been carried out, but the extent is limited as the Government Grant for Maintenance 
remains the same as it was nine years ago, while labour and every article that has to be 
bought has considerably increased in price. 
IO One of the old wooden span-roofed plant-sheds in the Nursery, fifty feet 
long and eighteen feet wide, has been renewed with iron supports and roof, covered 
with bertani chicks, and the beds on which the plants are set reconstructed with 
rough soft oranite covered with Selaginella serpens. Nearly sufficient iron has been 
accumulated to construct another and larger shed during the current year when the 
land now owned by the Tramway Company has been acquired. 
11. The large iron plant-shed in which the plants are all grown in rock-work 
has been gone through, overgrown specimens removed to more suitable quarters and 
the others re-planted and manured. In this shed are some fine tree ferns and shade 
loving palms. New beds have been made and planted up with miscellaneous flow- 
ed ng^shrubs, and a great number of Palms and trees of various kinds planted out in 
different parts of the grounds. 
