STAFF 
Mr. M. R. Henderson, Director, Mr. J. Sinclair, Curator of the Herbarium 
and Mr. G. H. Addison, Curator, Parks, were on duty throughout the year. 
Mr. J. W. Ewart, Curator, Gardens, was on leave until July and on his return 
resumed part time duty as Agricultural Officer, Singapore. Dr. C. X. Furtado, 
who retired from the post of Assistant Botanist in 1952, was re-employed in 
the same capacity. Mohamed Nur bin Mohamed Ghose, Herbarium Assist¬ 
ant, retired after forty years’ service and was re-employed in the same post. 
The post of Assistant Director still remains vacant. 
The average number of labourers employed in the Gardens was seventy- 
nine and at Government House Domain fifty-seven. 
BOTANICAL WORK AND THE HERBARIUM 
More field work was possible in 1953 compared with the previous year 
and more collections were made. 
Mr. Sinclair made four short visits to Gunong Pulai in South Johore, 
which is now accessible to the summit by a jeep road. Transport and escorts 
were kindly provided by the O.C.P.D., Kulai. Collecting was done mainly in 
the ravines of the Sungai Ayer Hitam Besar and Sungai Ayer Hitam Kechil, 
and one trip was made to the summit. Here Rhododendron longiflorum was 
observed in full bloom. This is an epiphytic Rhododendron which is often 
found high up on tall trees. Unfortunately little flowering of the shrubs or of 
the taller trees was observed on any of the visits. 
Mr. Sinclair spent three weeks during July in Trengganu, collecting along 
the coast and at Dungun and Bukit Besi. Some 186 numbers were obtained, 
the most interesting material coming from the lowland forest at Sri Bangun 
near Bukit Besi and from the Trengganu-Besut road. Preliminary examina¬ 
tion shows that about 22 per cent of the plants collected have not previously 
been recorded from Trengganu and that about 14 per cent are new to science, 
but as this large area has not been intensively collected, these results are 
not surprising. Mr. J. S. Addison, Mr. C. L. Carrier and Inche Ibrahim bin 
Abdul Kadir of the Forest Department very kindly helped in providing trans¬ 
port during this expedition. 
In November Mr. Sinclair spent eighteen days at the Forest Research 
Institute, Kepong, from whence visits were made to various places of botanical 
interest in the vicinity. Collecting was done at Weld Hill, a small Forest Re¬ 
serve in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, which is the type locality for many 
Malayan plants; on the limestone at Batu Caves; on the quartz of Klang 
Gates; in the peat swamp forest at Telok, Klang; and in the lowland forest 
at Sungai Menyala, Port Dickson. In this last locality the Forest Department 
has set aside blocks of forest which are protected from exploitation and in 
which most of the trees have been identified and labelled, so that individual 
trees may be studied over long periods of time. Thanks are due to Mr. A. V. 
Thomas for permission to use the facilities of the Library and Herbarium of 
the Forest Research Institute, and to Mr. J. Wyatt-Smith for help in field 
work. 
Mr. Sinclair continued his collecting of Singapore plants, with the result 
that several rare plants were found, at least six of which are new to the Singa¬ 
pore flora. These include Cymodocea, a marine flowering plant, which was 
found at Tanah Merah Besar. 
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