4 
HERBARIUM WORK AND OTHER INVESTIGATIONS 
Until Mr. Henderson’s return in July, the routine work of the her¬ 
barium was carried out by Mr. C. X. Furtado, Assistant Botanist. 
A number of determinations were made for the Department of Agriculture, 
especially of grasses and weeds, and for the Rubber Research Institute. 
Mr. Furtado spent much time in entering references on the sheets bearing 
duplicate types of new species described during the year, including the palms 
from New Guinea collected by the late Mr. C. E. Carr and named by 
Prof. M. Burret. 
Mr. Henderson worked over an interesting collection made by 
Mr. Gordon Spare on the tidal banks of the Krian river at Bagan Serai, and 
also made preliminary identifications of a large number of specimens sent 
by the Conservator of Forests, British North Borneo. Mr. Henderson 
spent most of the rest of his time continuing his work on the large genus 
Eugenia, represented in Malaya by about 140 species. In connection with 
this work, much valuable material has been lent from the herbaria at Leiden, 
Buitenzorg, Calcutta and Dehra Dun, including the types of many species. 
The loan of these specimens has been of great assistance to Mr. Henderson, 
and thanks are expressed to the Directors of the herbaria in question. 
Mr. Henderson has also investigated the structure of the seeds of as many 
species as possible of Eugenia, as information on this subject is very 
incomplete and variations of structure appear to be of diagnostic importance. 
Mr. Furtado continued and extended the work on the genus 
Homalomena (Aracese) mentioned last year. For this purpose almost all the 
specimens of the genus in the Buitenzorg herbarium were obtained on loan, 
and assistance was also obtained from Kew and Leiden. A paper embodying 
the results of the whole investigation was prepared and made ready for 
publication in the Gardens Bulletin. Mr. Furtado also continued his work 
011 palms, of which about 300 specimens were mounted on the new 7 large-size 
sheets, identified, and laid into the new 7 cabinets obtained during the year. 
Until his departure on leave, Mr. Corner continued his w 7 ork in 
connection with the preparation of his book on the common trees of Malaya. 
He embodied the results of the necessary preliminary critical studies in a 
series of papers on the systematy and distribution of Malayan phanerogams, 
for publication in the Gardens Bulletin. The first group of these papers were 
almost ready for issue by the end of the year, and also Mr. Corner's paper 
on the subgenus Synoecia of the genus Ficus. 
During his leave in Europe, the Director spent nearly tw 7 o months 
working in the herbaria at Kew 7 , the British Museum, Cambridge and Paris. 
He undertook a wider study of the group of acrostichoid ferns which he has 
investigated in Malaya, examining specimens of the genus Lomariopsis 
from all tropical regions. In this he w 7 as greatly assisted by the loan of 
material from Washington, New 7 York, Berlin and Brussels. He also spent 
some time making critical notes on other groups of ferns, and followed up 
an investigation of the genus Bougainvillea w'hich was started by Mr. F, 
Feippance. An attempt was made to trace all references to cultivated 
Bougainvilleas, with the object of stabilizing the nomenclature of the 
varieties cultivated in Malaya. It is clear that the names of Bougainvilleas 
differ somew 7 hat in different parts of the w T orld; e.g. the variety known in 
Malaya as “Mrs. Butt” is called “Crimson Lake” in Florida, but a variety 
introduced to Malaya as “Crimson Lake” proves to be something quite 
different. The difficulty of establishing the meaning of names is increased 
by the fact that various shades of colour of different varieties cannot be 
described accurately in w 7 ords; and without coloured illustrations or reference 
