8 
IX. ADVISORY WORK 
40. The Curators, as is customary, advised various Government Depart¬ 
ments on the layout of grounds, road-verges, etc., and the Gardens provided 
planting material in many cases. Many other institutions, firms and people 
-also asked for advice: their requests were dealt with in the office or, if 
circumstances warranted it, visits were made. The major new tree planting 
scheme was on the new Changi Coast Road and the Tanah Merah Besar 
Road. Tlie latter was planted with Gardenia carinata and Lagerstrcemia flos- 
reguuv. Some 150 shrubs and trees were provided for the new turnabouts on 
the Bukit Timah Road. The usual contact was maintained with the Citv 
Council Parks Department, and planting material was exchanged. 
41. The Department supervised the transplanting of a Ficus religiosa 
from the main runway of the new International Airport at Paya Lebar. This 
holy tree, which had a shrine at its base, is said to have been brought as 
a cutting from a tree in Ceylon, which in turn was a scion of the tree at 
Magadha under which Buddha became incarnate. The tree at Paya Lebar 
was over 70 feet high and was cut back to about 30 feet. The tree with 
a ball of earth, weighing altogether about 25 tons, was transported to a site 
half a mile away and replanted. It seems probable that the tree will establish 
itself satisfactorily on the new site. 
X. NATURE RESERVES 
42. Prior to 1936 most of the present Nature Reserves were Forest 
Reserves under the old Forest Ordinance, but in that year it was decided 
that they were no longer worth maintaining for production. In July 1937. 
the Botanic Gardens took over the maintenance of certain reserves, namelv, 
Bukit Timah, Pandan and Kranji and in 1938 the Director of the Botanic 
Gardens was gazetted Conservator of Forests, a post which had originally been 
held by Mr. Ridley. In 1951 the Nature Reserves Ordinance was enacted and 
the Board of Management of one ex-officio and six nominated trustees was 
formed to administer the Reserves. The Director of Gardens is the ex-officio 
Chairman of the Board. At this time the Municipal Catchment Area and the 
cliff-face at Labrador (Pasir Panjang Reserve) were added, making a total 
of over 9,000 acres of Nature Reserves in the Colony, which are thus ‘‘de¬ 
dicated, set aside and reserved for the purpose of the propagation, protection 
and preservation of the indigenous fauna and flora of the Colony and for 
the preservation of objects and places of aesthetic, historical or scientific 
interest”. 
43. Bukit Timah was one of the first Forest Reserves made in Singa¬ 
pore, shortly after Cantley s Report of 1883, and is one of the few remaining 
areas of good primary rain forest left on the Island. It has been a botanical 
collecting-ground for more than a century and from it has been obtained 
the first known specimens of many species of Malayan plants. Apart from 
the quarries which disfigure the lower slopes and which are outside the 
boundary of the reserve, Bukit Timah has been little altered since the 
earliest days and has been little exploited for timber. At present it is just 
big enough to maintain its own internal climate and to be self-maintaining 
in regard to plant species. Any further opening up of the area would be 
disastrous. The other Nature Reserves contain areas of fresh-water and man¬ 
grove-swamp forests, while much of the catchment area is secondary forest 
and scrub ( belukar ). 
