Introductory. 
Shortly after the founding of Singapore, Raffles established a Botanic Garden 
on the slopes of Fort Canning, towards Stamford Road, but this Garden was 
abandoned in 1829. The present Botanic Gardens date from 1859, and were 
started by an Agri-horticultural Society formed for the purpose. The Society 
continued to maintain the Gardens until 1874, when they were handed over to 
the Government. 
Until the formation of the Malayan Departments of Forestry and Agriculture 
at Kuala Lumpur about 1905, the Singapore Botanic Gardens was the only 
centre of research on Forestry and Agriculture in Malaya, and there were sub¬ 
sidiary stations at Penang and Malacca. The Superintendent of the Gardens 
made the first report on the Forests of the Straits Settlements in 1882, as a 
result of which Forest Reserves were established under his control. The 
Economic Garden, established in 1879 on land adjacent to the Botanic Gardens 
and now occupied by Raffles College, was used for experimental planting of 
many newly introduced useful plants, among them the first Para rubber trees, 
brought to Singapore in 1878. The early tapping experiments were carried 
out in the Economic Garden under Mr. H. N. Ridley, and from the trees in 
the Economic Garden seeds were supplied for planting many rubber estates 
in Malaya. 
Along with this pioneer work of immediate economic importance, the Botanic 
Gardens has throughout been a centre for the study of the native Flora of Malaya . 
Botanical exploration began in the eighteen seventies, and has resulted in the 
formation* of a very large collection of herbarium specimens (mainly dried) 
and drawings. Many local species have also been cultivated in the Gardens 
and studied in the living state. Along with the building up of a herbarium, 
a botanical library has also been gradually established, containing most of the 
important books and periodicals dealing with the plants of S. E. Asia. Based 
on this material, Mr. H. N. Ridley prepared a Flora of the Malay Peninsula, 
published 1922-25, 
In recent years the Botanic Gardens have been concerned with the more 
decorative side of horticulture, experimental introduction of new plants, with 
plant breeding, and with a continued study of the Malayan Flora. These are 
all interdependent activities. Fortunately our herbarium andJibrary survived 
the war intact. The Botanic Gardens also has control of three areas of natural 
vegetation in Singapore island which are maintained as Nature Reserves. 
Botanical Work in 1948. 
The principal object of the botanical work of the Department is the pre¬ 
paration of a revised Flora of the Malay Peninsula. Mr. Ridley’s Flora, 
published 1922-25, is now much out of date, and is also difficult to under¬ 
stand unless one has access to the Singapore herbarium on which it is based. 
That Flora contains descriptions of over 6,000 species of higher plants (not 
including ferns). Probably present collections will show an increase to about 
7,000 but still every new collection of any size includes species not known to 
exist in Malaya previously, and our knowledge of many others is derived from 
single specimens only. It is thus impossible even now to prepare a complete 
account of the Flora, but it is possible to prepare an up-to-date account which 
is intelligible to the non-specialist, and this is our aim. To prepare such a 
Flora one must study also records and specimens of plants in neighbouring 
countries, as many of our species are not confined to Malaya; and it may be 
