2 
of new orchid hybrids in the Malayan Orchid Review Vol. 4, No. 2. The third in 
the series Malayan Gardens Plants, containing line drawings and brief descrip¬ 
tions of ten orchids, was published. 
The Herbarium 
The number of herbarium duplicates despatched to other Botanical Institu¬ 
tions increased as compared with 1949, and in all 1,980 were distributed. Much 
material was sent on loan, chiefly to specialists working on various groups for 
Flora Malesiana, 2,478 sheets being sent out, as well as a large collection of figs in 
alcohol. 
The Herbarium received in exchange from various overseas institutions 2,345 
sheets of duplicates, much valuable material being acquired, as in past years, from 
the Forest Department, North Borneo. 3,510 sheets were mounted and incor¬ 
porated in the Herbarium. 
All dried material for the Herbarium, and all duplicate material sent out, 
is thoroughly poisoned to prevent insect attack, especially the ravages of the so- 
called ‘herbarium beetle’, which can cause great damage if not checked. The 
poisoning is done by immersing the specimens in an alcoholic solution of corrosive 
sublimate. The Singapore Herbarium is housed in well-made teak cases which 
are in themselves good protection against insects and damp. Because the Herba¬ 
rium is in constant use any deterioration is quickly detected. As a precaution 
against insect attack, which, fortunately, has always been almost non-existent, the 
cases are opened and sprayed at regular intervals with a Gammexane insecticide. 
One little known activity of the Department, in which the Herbarium plays a 
large part, is the identification of plant material for private individuals or for 
other Government Departments, apart from the routine identification of specimens 
for the Agricultural and Forest Departments of the Federation, Sarawak and 
North Borneo, who maintain their own collections and donate duplicates in re¬ 
turn for such identifications. Plants suspected of being injurious or toxic are 
received from the Department of Chemistry; botany students from the University 
of Malaya or from the local schools bring their collections to be named; people 
interested in local herbal medicines bring exceedingly fragmentary material to 
be identified; the Department of Agriculture in Fiji requests information on 
Chinese drugs imported into that country in order to discover whether any of them 
may be noxious weeds, and so on. A specimen of a stem was sent from Kuala 
Lumpur which had been collected in Kedah with an extraordinary recipe for 
longevity. This was to eat one inch of the stem, which is woody and very bitter, 
the first day, two inches the second, and so on for forty days. 
Horticultural Work 
The Gardens continued to be maintained in good order. Their good appear¬ 
ance is due in considerable measure to the efficient working of the three Dennis 
24-inch motor mowers, which keep the extensive lawns neatly cut and obviate the 
necessity of a large labour force employed solely on grass cutting by primitive 
means. But horticultural work can be mechanised only to a limited extent, and 
there is more than enough work in the digging of beds and borders, planting, 
manuring, spraying, propagating, potting and repotting, and the hundred and one 
other matters that need constant attention, especially in a climate where growth 
is continuous throughout the year, to keep fully employed the whole of the labour 
force. 
