7 
The Director continued his experimental cultivation of hybrid 
orchid seedlings, with the assistance of Mr. J. L. Pestana, 
Laboratory Assistant. Methods remained the same, and a report on 
the plants raked is given under the heading “Botanic Gardens, 
Singapore”. The Director made some experiments in the propagation 
of plants from cuttings in a medium of coir dust, in a closed frame, 
by a similar method to that used at the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Edinburgh. The method was successful with cuttings of Camoensia 
maxima, Brownea grandiceps and other species which do not 
usually produce seeds and are difficult to propagate by ordinary 
methods; for some other plants it was not successful. Cuttings will 
remain in fresh condition without wilting for weeks. The Director 
also continued his observations on the periodic leaf-change and 
flowering of trees; the records in some cases are complete from 1927, 
and provide a very interesting series of data which it is hoped to 
publish soon. 
The Gardens Library .—Mr. Furtado continued in charge of the 
Library, and also continued the card indexes (i) of current literature 
relating to Malayan plants and (ii) of new species from the Malay 
Peninsula and corrections to Ridley’s Flora. The number of additions 
to the library has been considerable in recent years, and the 
accommodation is rapidly becoming inadequate. A certain amount of 
additional room has been secured by handing over certain periodicals 
of a purely agricultural nature to the Department of Agriculture. 
The number of periodicals received is now 126, mostly in exchange for 
the Gar dens' Bulletin. Exchange with a certain number of purely 
agricultural periodicals has been stopped. 
The number of books bound during the year at the Government 
Printing Office was 165. Assistance was also received from the 
Printing Office staff in poisoning the books in the library; this valuable 
help is gratefully acknowledged. 
Captain H. A. Johnstone presented to the library a copy of a 
valuable illustrated work on palms from tropical America: Sertwn 
Paimarum Brasiliensium, by J. Barbosa Rodrigues (Brussels, 1903, 
2 vols. quarto, with folio illustrations). Grateful thanks are offered 
to Capt. Johnstone for this munificent gift. 
PUBLICATIONS 
The Gardens' Bulletin, S.S .—A record number of four parts of 
the Bulletin were issued during the year. The contents were as 
follows:— J 
Vol. VIII part 2, Jan. 26th.—More than half this issue is 
occupied by a paper by Mr. C. E. Carr on orchids from 
Sarawak. There are also short papers by Dr. E. D. 
Merril and Messrs. Corner and Furtado, the latter 
contributing critical notes on Malayan Aroids and Palms, 
the results of work in European herbaria in 1933-34. 
Vol. VII part 3, June 24th.—This contains a paper by 
Mr. C. E. Carr on orchid collections made by him on Mount 
Kinabalu for the Gardens Department in 1933, and by the 
Clemens expedition in 1931-33; a paper of critical notes 
