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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOTANIC GARDENS DEPARTMENT 
Staff 
Mr. M. R. Henderson was appointed Director with effect from September 1949. 
The vacant post of Assistant Director was not filled and Mr. J. Sinclair, Curator 
of the Herbarium, acted in this capacity in addition to his own duties throughout 
the year. Mr. J, W. Ewart acted as Agricultural Officer, Singapore, in addition to 
his own duties as Assistant Curator, Gardens. Mr. G. H. Addison proceeded on 
vacation leave in November. Mr. J. L. Pestana, Laboratory Assistant, was sent to 
Honolulu on a four months’ training course in orchid hybridisation. Mr. G. A. C. 
Lopez was appointed Library Assistant in November. 
The average daily attendance of the labour force was seventy-five in the 
Gardens, fifty-eight in Government House Domain and nine in the Reserves. In 
general their health was good. The majority of the Gardens labourers are housed 
in Gardens quarters. 
Botanical Work in 1950 
As in 1949, field work outside Singapore was much reduced owing to the 
emergency. Mr. M. R. Henderson paid a short visit to Kota Belud in North Borneo 
in April to collect in that vicinity. A fine Gardenia ( G . Merrillii ) was found to be 
common in this area and seed of it was brought back to Singapore for trial in local 
gardens. Mr. J. Sinclair accompanied the Forest Botanist, Mr, J. Wyatt-Smith, in 
September on a short collecting trip to the Gunong Lambak Forest Reserve at 
Kluang and the Ma’Okil Forest Reserve near Labis. He also spent two weeks in 
Penang during November and thanks are due to Mr. Ritchings and the staff of the 
Waterfall Gardens, Penang for providing transport and other help. Mr. Sinclair 
continued his intensive collecting in Singapore, particularly on the islands off the 
south-west coast. As a result of these visits thirteen plants new to Singapore were 
recorded. One of these is Cordia obcordata, a tree with handsome red flowers 
which has been found previously at Mersing and in Penang and Kedah. Other 
new records are of four grasses new to Malaya, one of which, collected on Pulau 
Sakeng, has been recorded previously only from New Guinea. 
Mr. Sinclair completed a short paper on Bornean Annonaceae for the Sarawak 
Museum Journal, and continued his studies on Malayan Annonaceae. 
Dr. C. X. Furtado, Assistant Botanist, was engaged upon a revision of Dcemo- 
norops, a genus of climbing palms of peculiar difficulty, in which the older species 
are often inadequately described, and the type specimens, when available, insuf¬ 
ficient, so that their interpretation entails much research. Dr. Furtado also deter¬ 
mined palm specimens in pre-war collections that still remained unnamed. He 
supervised work in the library and extracted and indexed references to Malayan 
systematic and economic botany contained in foreign periodicals. 
Part 1 of Volume XIII of the Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore was published in 
June, the whole of the issue being given to a most important revision, illustrated by 
line drawings, of Malayan Zingiberaceae (Gingers), written by Professor R. E. 
Holttum. The second part of Malayan Wild Flowers , by Mr. M. R. Henderson, 
published by the Malayan Nature Society, appeared at the end of the year. Mr. 
M. R. Henderson and Mr. G. H. Addison published descriptions and illustrations 
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