9 
The Durian and the Java almond trees (Canarium com¬ 
mune) flowered abundantly but the fruits did not set except 
one Durian which grew as big as a child’s head but fell before 
maturity. This Durian tree was obtained in 1903 in Java from 
trees which were pointed out to me as possessing fruits of 
particularly good flavour and nearly scentless. . In view of the 
difficulty of obtaining fresh seeds of this fruit tree,. the first 
fruiting of the introduced trees has been watched with some 
anxiety. 
Among creepers the following have been much admired by 
visitors :— 
Odontadenia Harrissii 
Teeoma jasminoides 
Congea tomemtosa 
Tristellatia autralis 
Passiflora coccinea 
all of which produce flowers of uncommon colour and beauty. 
Among the newly introduced plants, the folloiving are special¬ 
ly mentioned :— 
Soft shelled palms from German West Africa 
Kola nuts from Sierra Leone 
Shea butter nuts (Pentadesma oleracea from Nigeria) 
Terminalia edulis from Philippines 
Nipa fructieans from Philippines 
Antidesma burnius ,, 
Jaboticaba ,, 
Cambrica ,, 
Andropogon or C, flexuosus from Ceylon 
,, N ardus Maha Pengiri „ 
Brazil nut (Be tholettia exeelsa from Trinidad 
Tonka Beans (Dipterix odorata) „ 
Malpighia sp. from Barbados 
Gros Michel banana from Fiji 
Coffea robusta from Java 
,, Quilloer 
,, Canephora 
„ Laurentii 
„ Uganda 
Kokia rockii from Washington 
Stryclmos nux vomica from Madras 
Hymenaea verrucosa (Gum copal) from Madagascar 
Berassus Madagascariensis ,, 
Beaucarnea recurvata from Mexico. 
Over 100 tins of seeds were received from Mauritius, India, 
Ceylon, Singapore, Madagascar, Java, Philippines, United 
States, Trinidad, Mexico, and 80 tins were sent in exchange, 
besides 3 boxes of vanilla vine. 
The oil palm introduced from Mauritius in 1902 was iden¬ 
tified at Kew from fruits shipped to the Imperial Institute in 
July 1913 as being a form of Eloeis Guineensis Jacq. The 
results of the examination of the fruits at the Imperial Insti¬ 
tute showed that the pericarp of the fruit yielded about 33 o/o 
of oil equivalent to about 19 o/o from the whole fruit. The 
percentage of kernel per cent of fruit amounted to 28‘4 o/o. 
It is fortunate that this tree belongs to a good type of oil palm 
as already several plants of the second generation (within 12 
years) are fruiting at Victoria and at Mamelles and that no 
time for propagation will thus be lost. 
Seeds of other palm oil trees were however introduced 
from Lagos in 1911 and in December of this year (1913) about 
^ cwt of seeds of the thinner shelled kind of palm fruit was 
imported from German West Africa through the instrumenta¬ 
lity of His Excellency the Governor of Southern Nigeria. 
The two kinds of palm fruits (thick and thin shelled varie¬ 
ties) should be grown side by side in this Colony as the thin 
shelled varieties are very often destitute of kernels which are 
also articles of export and greatly needed in this Colony for 
the feeding of pigs and poultry and for the preparation of a 
fine edible oil. 
