17 
Perennial Phlox, in various colours, was found more suitable than 
ordinary Phlox Drummondii both as a pot-plant and for bedding. It was 
easily raised from cuttings. 
Gladiolus, in various colours, were grown so as to give a continuous 
flowering at Government House Domain. The bulbs, purchased two years 
ago, had given by the end of 1937 three lots of flowers. After flowering 
the bulbs were allowed to develop mature leaves before being lifted. They 
were dried off in a sand frame and then stored for two months before 
planting again. Thus the rotation of flowers was maintained. 
Lantana Drap d’Or, with golden yellow flowers, was received from 
Hongkong. It flowered profusely and made a showy pot-plant, though its 
growth was not strong compared with the common varieties. 
Orchids, —More time was devoted to orchid culture than in previous 
years and a general improvement was made in the condition of most plants. 
Insect pests, which had always been a trouble, were fairly well controlled 
by frequent spraying. 
The method of cultivation was changed. Whenever possible plants 
were planted in such a way as to restrict or confine their roots in as small 
a space as possible, thus offsetting any chance of decay and affording the 
I slants a maximum amount of air. Potting-material for the epiphytic kinds 
consisted chiefly of a compost made of broken house-bricks (10 parts), 
charcoal (2 parts) and either tree-fern or Polypodium-fern-fibre (1 part). 
The size of the particles depended upon the size of the containers used. 
Xo manures were used in connection with these plants except by way of a 
top dressing of well-decayed, clean grass-clippings. Terrestrial kinds w T ere 
mostly potted into a compost made of burnt soil (10 parts), siftings of the 
potting-compost used for the epiphytic kinds (5 parts), coarse sand (1 part), 
leaf-mould (3 parts), peat-moss fibre (1 part), and dry cattle-manure (1 part). 
Rhodamnia-wood was used almost exclusively as a foundation for the plants 
grown on blocks. 
The hybridising pf orchids was continued. The seeds of forty new 
hybrids were sown in flasks, nineteen of the crosses being made at the 
Gardens. A survey of the hybrids in cultivation at the Gardens at the 
end of the year revealed that the collection of these plants, representing 
120 epiphytic kinds and 15 terrestrial, numbered about 3,000 plants potted 
out individually, about 2,000 in seedling-pans and several thousand in 
various stages of growth in seedling-flasks. 
As in the case of the established plants, good progress was made with 
the seedlings especially those of the Dendrobium-hybrids which had been 
very backward. Potting-composts were similar to those used with the adult 
plants except that in most cases they were of a much finer texture, no 
particles more than one half-inch in diameter being used. 
The symbiotic method of raising orchid-seedlings by inoculating them 
with the root-fungus was tried in the laboratory. A S'pathoglottis hybrid 
(Spath. Primrose x S. chrysantha) raised by this method took 17 months 
to flower. 
Three new hybrids raised at the Gardens u T ere flowered for the first 
time : — 
Spathoglottis “Primrose” 
Vanda hookeriana 
Dendrobinm undulatum 
x Spathoglottis Parsonsii. 
x Vanda Miss Joaquim. 
x Dendrobium phalsenopsis. 
V> 
