4 
Volumes 3 and 4 of Mr. Ridley's Flora of the Malay Peninsula appeared 
in London during the year. Volume 5 will conclude the work. A study 
of the ferns of the Peninsula by him lies with the Malayan branch of the 
Royal Asiatic Society awaiting publication: and an enumeration of the 
mosses of the Peninsula is promised by Mr. Dixon. The last named has 
described a series of new Malayan species in the Bulletin of the Torrey 
Botanical Club. Mr. C. O. Lloyd continues to publish descriptions and 
illustrations in his Mycological Notes of the larger fungi, which are sent 
to him from the Gardens, and during 1924, dealt with 21. 
A re-arrangement of the general herbarium has been commenced upon 
Mr. Ridley's Flora: the Director arranged the orders Ranunculaceae to 
Leguminosae, and Mr. Henderson the orders Nyctaginaceae to Urticaceae. 
This re-arrangement will be carried throughout; and as it is prosecuted, 
possible additions to the Flora are brought to Mr. Ridley's notice for 
incorporation in his last volume. A parallel re-arrangement of the Gardens 
herbarium is in progress. 
The Gardens herbarium has never been mentioned in the annual 
reports of the Department; and it is desirable that something should be 
put on record regarding it. Its purpose is the maintenance of correct names 
upon the cultivated plants. It took origin in 1913, when all sheets bearing 
specimens of Gardens' origin were withdrawn from the general herbarium 
into a series of their own. The series was amplified by Mr. G. B. Desh-. 
muki-i, the first Field-Assistant, who was given the duty of going through the 
Gardens from end to end to check the names upon the labels, and correct 
misplacements. It was amplified further by the Record-Keeper and 
Herbarium Assistant; and from the “Plants-inwards" books all pertinent 
information was brought into it. Mounting, however, was impossible 
owing 'to War conditions, and has remained so until 1924, But the 
Director has been able from the specimens and the records, to commence a 
new r catalogue of the Gardens upon a proper basis, namely one which will 
record failures as well as successes in cultivation, a “Hortus Singa- 
pureiisis"; and he sees no reason against the completion of it by co-operating 
with the staff after his retirement. Its value is obvious. 
There is a smaller Gardens herbarium in Penang, made by the employ¬ 
ment of Mr. Mohamed Haniff upon checking the labels. This was not 
possible until he could be relieved in 1919, of the executive charge; and 
its use in drawing up a catalogue can only follow after the Singapore 
catalogue has been prepared. 
In 1913, about 600 herbarium sheets were lent to a professor of Botany 
in Breslau for study, and in 1917, about 1,000 to the Superintendent of the 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta. The majority of the specimens were 
returned in 1924, and it is hoped to get back the rest at an early date. At 
the present time very few specimens are out on loan, being the 
Begoniaceae which are with Professor Irmscher, and a part of the 
Argostemmas which are with Mr. Ridley" . 
During 1924, phyto-geographic and ecological studies have been 
advanced. Mr. Holttum's account of the vegetation of the top of Gunong 
Belumut in Johore is a very interesting piece of work. The Director and 
Mr. Henderson have in the press an enumeration of the Higher-plants of 
Taiping with an analysis of their distribution. 
Mr. Toh Chin Hock of yo, Sago Street, Singapore, was so kind as to 
send to the Gardens a durian fruit wherein was enclosed a second entire 
fruit, after the fashion of the Navel orange, but completely enclosed. A 
similar abnormality is mentioned in Mr. Ridley’s Flora, Vol. I, page 262. 
Library. —Mr. Furtado completed a card-index to the library. It is 
-arranged under authors: and there are 3,780 entries referring to 4,755 
volumes. Of the 3,780 titles, 2,288 are the titles of reprints. This indicates 
how extremely important to the Department has been the fellowship among 
