I. GENERAL 
Thh Botanic Gardhns had its full complement of senior staff for the first time 
for many years. It was thus possible to extend the work of the Department and 
good progress was made in several branches, more especially in increased 
plant collecting and in improvements to the Gardens. Even so, there are many 
pressing botanical problems, which cannot be tackled with the limited staff. 
Consideration is therefore being given to schemes designed to attract research 
workers from Britain and elsewhere to Singapore for one or two years to carry 
out botanical research in their specialized fields, with the object of increasing 
our output of research, and obtaining knowledge which would be of great value 
for the tropics as a whole; and of familiarising workers from temperate countries 
with tropical botany and stimulating their interests in our problems. 
2. The great event of the year as far as the Botanic Gardens were con¬ 
cerned was the celebration of Mr. H. N. Ridley’s hundredth birthday on the 10th 
December, 1955. Mr. Ridley was Director of the Botanic Gardens from 1888 
until 1912 and was largely responsible for the founding of Malaya’s rubber 
industry. An exhibition was staged at the Gardens to mark the occasion. Details 
are given in paras. 43-47 below. 
3. Mr. E. J. H. Corner, Assistant Director of the Singapore Botanic 
Gardens, 1929-1946, and now Lecturer in Botany at Cambridge University, 
was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March. He thus becomes the 
third person connected with the Gardens to receive this honour. The others 
are Sir Stamford Raffles, who founded the first Singapore Botanic Gardens in 
1822 and Mr. Ridley. 
II. STAFF 
4. All Division I officers were on duty throughout the year with the 
exception of Mr. Ewart, who returned from six weeks’ vacation leave in New 
Zealand on the 18th January. Dr. C. X. Furtado, a re-employed pensioner, 
continued in his post of Assistant Botanist. Attempts to fill the post locally 
failed, as no one with the requisite qualifications was forthcoming. Dr. Anne 
Johnson worked temporarily as part-time Librarian from 1st February, 1955 
to 15th September, 1955. Mr. H. M. Burkill, Assistant Director, acted as 
Director during my absence collecting in Sarawak in September. 
5. Mr. A. G. Alphonso, Horticultural Assistant, spent the year at the 
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, continuing his course of training. 
6. The British Empire Medal was conferred by Her Majesty the QUEEN 
in the Birthday Honours on Haji Mohamed Nur bin Mohamed Ghous, 
Herbarium Assistant. Haji Mohamed Nur has been on the staff of the Botanic 
Gardens since 1913, and as a boy helped Mr. Ridley with his now-famous 
rubber tapping experiments. 
7. Ahmad bin Hassan, the oldest member of the staff, completed 54 
years of service. He was first employed by Mr. Ridley as a Plant Collector 
in 1901 and accompanied Mr. Ridley on many of his historic expeditions of 
long ago, which added so much to our knowledge of the country’s botany, 
‘Che Ahmad now spends his time collecting seeds for despatch to botanical 
institutions throughout the world. His great knowledge of living plants en¬ 
sures that only authentic seeds are sent out and is also most useful to 
members of the staff on local excursions. 
