i $ 
SYONAN BOTANICAL GARDES. 
Monthly Report for December, 2603. 
1. Dr. Furtado^ report 
(a) Botanic Gardens 
Che* Pur rear ranged 3, bid specimens in the general herbarium 
inserting in it also the specimens from the Hong Kong herbarium. 
The plant families concerned are Bignoniaceae, Pedalinae, Acanthaceae, 
Myoporinuae, Selagineae, Verbenaceae <1 nabiatae. He also helped 
Dr. Vatanabe in naming some plants. 
Ghe T Kiah mended 112 sx^eciuens from the Hong Kong herbarium and 
inserted from this herbarium into the general herbarium 738 genera 
covers together with species sheets. He also helped Dr. Watanabe 
in collecting some planting material and in drying some plant 
material to be submitted for medical analyses or experiments. 
fr« Fur t, a do helped the Nipponese officers in the general 
administration of the Department. He supplied Malay ft Javanese 
names to many plants which are listed as edible in the Military and 
other books prepared in Nippon. Ke also prepared for the proposed 
Flora of Syonan a list of Aroids g found wild or in common cultivation 
in Syonan. In the company of Che* Nur, Dr. Furtado helped 
Dr. atanebe to name 120 plants for the Tsukasa Butai in Katong. 
An interesting specimen among the dried herbs received for naming 
was the South African Barosrna crenata . a species never before 
recorded to have been imported in Syonan, though it i3 mentioned 
as a diuretic herbal in some Pharmacopoeias. 
A number of plants were dried and given to the Medicine Butai 
for analysis or experiments . Among these were included Gloriosa 
s upe rba . Calotropis gigantia . Tithonia diversifolia . 
Dr. Furtado acc origan it- d Mr. Sudo and brought about 3*000 
herbarium specimens from the Custodian of ,-Jiemy Property. All 
tht.se 3p.ci.mens belonged to the Nipponese Mr. Z. Teruya who had, 
prior to the war, devoted intelligently his leisure in collecting 
in the Malaysian regions ana in building up a small private 
herbarium of his own. These specimens form, therefore, a very 
valuable addition to the Syonan herbarium wherein they will be 
gradually incorporated. In view of the fact that in Syonan such 
herbarium collections easily become mouldy or get attacked by 
insets unless specially preserved* and kept very dry, and that 
Mr. Teruya^ collections, though not specially protected, 
were neither mouldy nor attacked by insects, a surmise is made 
that the good condition of the collection was due to the French 
chalk which had accidentally fallen all over the specimens in the 
3tore. Hence, thanks to the kindness of the Custodian of ,nemy 
Property, some French chalk has been obtained and is being now 
tried on the numerous unmounted specimens which, in the absence 
of any preservative, we find difficult to keep in good condition. 
In the cot npany of Dr. Watanabe . Dr. Furtado located in the 
compound of the Kramat at Rangoon Road an arboreous C alotropis 
gigantia having a stem about 20-23 cm. in diameter. 
With the assistance of Hr, T. da Costa the Veterinary Officer > 
of the Tokubetusi, Dr. Furtado selected 4 bullocks for the Gardens* 
Department. If +he schene matures, it is thought to use ploughs, 
rather than manual labour, in tilling some of the lands in the 
Economic Gardens. It is hoped that by this means the difficulty of 
getting manual labour will be decreased considerably. 
A3 ploughs are not locally obtainable, the Gardens carpenter 
was shown the models at the Museum so that he may construct ploughs 
suitable to the Gardens" needs. At x>**esent only one plough has 
