- 2 - 
Of an unde retandi ng so that we are aixow^d to take our deliveries 
from the old shop, though the quest ion of price resins ye f to be 
s 
et tied 
Owliiu to the development of the Hconordc Cardens in the Sultana, 
it is found the' we require more and more labourers, arid since none 
are forthcoming we have been doing this work by transferring the 
labourers from the Botanic Cardens, the labour force of which iB 
very much depleted since f he sending of our men to Thailand. A 
good many coolies from the two Forest Reserves have also left the 
Department to work elsewhere. The only wa,y to attract suitable 
persons to the Osrdens is to obtain facilities in buying for them 
the coi trolled rations end to obtain extra rice rations such as 
giver, to the employees of the different Butais and some Departments 
of the t’okubetu-ii. Failure to obtain these facilities to our people 
might deplete further our staff and also create disaffection among 
the existing ones. 
Mr* ?, BON AM 1 3 cleaned 236 books, killing We 1 Vila and other 
vermin. He als > labelled 39 books, collected and dried some vegetable 
seeds, and helped the Department in typing. 
Che ' ABDIL V/AHAB remained in charge of the general clerical 
routine, ana he is busy at present in labelling all the office 
f urni r,ure. 
Chu f NOaDI&IAN continued to be in charge of the two Forest 
Reserves. In the liranji Forest Reserve many seedlings of Bakau 
plants have been planted. 
Dr. PURTADO continuea to assist the Nipponese officers in the 
general administration of the Department. He also visited the 
duitana Village ; nd arranged for the collection of house rento. 
In the Vegetable plots, some beds were planted with Sweet 
Potato, Bayaras , Keladis, Brinjals and Dutch purslane. In the 
absence of any Oil Cake, prawn-dust and other manures, it has not 
been possible to manure the beds well, so that the yield of the 
plots have decreased, considerably. The labour shortage is also 
felt here, and recently we have been obliged to curtail the spray- 
ing of plants against insects. A new experiment on manuring of 
Sweet Potatoes were started. 
In the Sultana much of the labour was spent in watering the 
plants during the dry weather, end in weeding the beds. The 
following are new plantings made in the area:- 
UO suckers of Danila Hemp ( Musa text ills ) 
31* Coffee plants ( Cof f ca a rab i c a ) 
200 cuttings of Rani e ( Boehme ria~ n i yea ) 
130 suckers of Lemon grass ( Cymb op og on c i t r a t u s ) . 
Mr. P, SUPPI/H was in charge as Foreraan-Oardener of both the 
Sultana and Botanic Cardens. 
2, Hr. Kolt.tum’s botanical work. 
Hr. Holttum continued hie study of the family Zinglberace ae , 
dealing with Alpinia and the group of small genera related to 
Alofoia and. Amomura, namely Oeoutachys, Oeocharis, Carenophila, 
Conauomum, ^iettaria, ^Ilettariopaia and Plegiostachys , He prepared 
descriptions of ail cpt.cies, critical notes on the genera and keys 
to the specie a in each genus, re also made a few more drawings 
of orchids and of an Alpinia. He sorted and put away about 1,000 
specimens of ferns from the iiong Kong Herbarium. 
&%h 7 
/ 
