8 
books on the botany of Malaya which are of use to the layman and 
the specialist. Burkill’s encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Economic 
Products of the Malay Peninsula ” (1935) is a model work of its type 
and is of the greatest value to agriculturists, foresters, chemists 
and many others. 
The specialist staff of the Gardens is now engaged on the pre¬ 
paration of the new Flora of Malaya. Since Ridley’s Flora was 
published our botanical knowledge has advanced considerably 
and a revision of his Flora is now urgently required. The first 
two volumes on Orchids and Ferns by Professor Holttum have 
already been published by the Government Printer, who is to 
be congratulated on the excellent way in which he has produced 
the books. 
The Flora Malesiana, edited by Professor van Steenis of Leiden 
and financed by the Indonesian Government, is being published 
contemporaneously with our local flora. This work covers the 
Malaysian region from Malaya and Sumatra to New Guinea. It is 
considered that at least 300-man years are required to complete 
the work. The Singapore Botanic Gardens is co-operating and 
will write certain families for the Flora. We also assist by lending 
many thousands of our herbarium specimens to specialists in 
Holland, England and elsewhere, who are working on this Flora. 
It should be realised that plants do not respect political bound¬ 
aries and the new work is of the utmost importance for all those 
who wish to assess the natural resources of the country. 
From time to time the Gardens’ staff prepare more popular 
works which are of general interest to the layman. Such works 
are Comer’s Wayside Trees of Malaya , also of great value to the 
specialist, Henderson’s Malayan Wild Flowers and our illus¬ 
trated pamphlets. 
Thus the work started by Ridley is being continued actively 
by his old department. 
Aponogeton Loriae 
This plant was found in the van Kleef Aquarium having been 
brought in from Johore. It is a new record for Malaya, having 
previously been found only in New Guinea and S. W. Celebes 
in the Malaysian region. 
LIBRARY 
Built in 19£5 to house the spirit collection of plants, but 
air-conditioned and used temporarily as a library, until the new 
library scheduled for 1957 is built. 
Old Botanical Books 
During Mr. Ridley’s term of office he built up a most valuable 
collection of old botanical books which are invaluable for our 
taxonomic research. They include the principal botanical works 
published in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, now 
extremely valuable and many of them unobtainable. Many of 
them are in Latin and are illustrated with large hand-coloured 
plates of great beauty. Our oldest book is Pavli Aegi published in 
15"31 - The Library now contains some 7,000 bound volumes, 
together with many periodicals The Library was catalogued dur¬ 
ing the present year by Dr. Anne Johnson. The last catalogue was 
published in 1898. Last year many of the books were found to be 
damaged by boring insects and silver-fish. For over a year one 
man has been fully occupied hand-poisoning all the books with 
mercuric chloride and methylated spirits and it is hoped that 
the new air-conditioned room will prevent further ravages. A 
fumigation chamber has just been built at the end of the Library, 
in which both books and herbarium specimens may be treated 
chemically should any further outbreaks occur. There is in¬ 
sufficient room in the present building to house all our books, 
some of which are now stored on the top floor of the Herbarium. 
