5 
The following collections were purchased;— 
Mr. B. A. Krukoff’s Sumatran plants . . 377 specimens 
Mr. C. E. Carr’s Papuan plants .. 1,300 specimens 
The number of sheets mounted in 1935 was as follows:— 
Local collections and Gardens Herbarium .. 1,219 
Specimens received in exchange or purchased .. 1,821 
Total .. 3,040 
Mr. Furtado has continued his work on Malayan palms, devoting 
himself chiefly to certain groups of rattans. These very difficult 
groups have been in a state of much confusion, and progress has been 
slow. The loan of some of Griffith’s types from Calcutta, for which we 
are grateful, has been of value in this work, and the Forest Depart¬ 
ment have lent specimens from the Kepong Herbarium. Mr. Furtado 
has put into order the section Piptospathae of the genus Dsemonorops, 
and has made considerable progress with the remaining section 
Cymbospathae. The results involve some changes in the botanical 
names of the half-dozen species producing Dragon’s Blood, and a 
revision of the distribution of the species. Further comparisons with 
specimens from Borneo and Sumatra will be required before a full 
account of the whole genus can be published, as there is doubtless 
some further overlapping of names, which may involve changes in the 
accepted names of the Peninsula species. Mr. Furtado will next deal 
with the genus Calamus in the same way; this will be a much larger 
task, but it is hoped that it will be completed in time. The rattans 
are of considerable commercial importance, and it is obviously 
desirable to have them properly classified botanically. They constitute- 
a large group of closely allied species, superficially very similar, and 
requiring careful study to discriminate. The collection of specimens 
of the very thorny leaves and inflorescences is an unpleasant business, 
and the specimens themselves are awkward to handle in the herbarium. 
Collectors often have not realised which are the important parts of 
the plant for identification purposes, and specimens are thus fre¬ 
quently inadequate. For mounting in the herbarium, leaves and other 
parts have often to be cut into pieces, and these pieces are easily 
mixed, so that parts of two different plants may be mounted together 
as from the same collection. All these factors have made for 
confusion. 
Mr. Furtado also elaborated some notes on Malayan Calami made 
during his work in European herbaria in 1933-34, and published the 
same; he further dealt in a similar way with some species of Aroids 
from the Peninsula. 
Mr. Furtado continued to have charge of the herbarium of 
cultivated plants. In the naming of palms, he was much assisted by 
Capt. H. A. Johnstone, who spent about three weeks in Singapore 
in the early part of the year. Capt. Johnstone has studied the palms 
growing in all the principal botanic gardens throughout the world, and 
placed at our disposal the results of his observations. This has resulted 
in many corrections in the names of our plants. Capt. Johnstone 
also made a very careful series of photographs of most of the 
palms in our Gardens, and presented us with a set of prints, which will 
