Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
But two brief notes have so far been published on the fine collection of Palms growing in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. The first in the " Agricultural Bulletin, S. and F. M. S." (Vol. III, p. 249 ) in 1904, the second in the same Journal (Vol. V, p. 6) in 1906, both presumably by Mr. Ridley. In the fourteen years since the last article was written many additions, and it is feared several losses, have to be recorded and accordingly it seemed desirable thoroughly to investigate the collection again. The present paper is the outcome of this work.  

 

Abstract:
A little while ago an enquiry was received asking what were the fungus diseases of Hevea brasiliensis. On consulting the literature on this subject it was ascertained that there was no recent complete enumeration of the disease that have been found to attack this tree in Malaya. Such lists have been prepared for other countries, as for instance by Petch for the Hevea in Ceylon, but the diseases are not necessarily the same in different countries and it seemed desirable therefore to have a list for Malaya. At the same time the present paper goes further than recording the diseases that have actually been proved and enumerates all fungi, both those that are known to be parasitic and those that are so far regarded as saprophytic, which have been found on Hevea locally. The importance of having such a list is ably reasoned by Professsor C. F. Baker in Vol. II, No. 4 of the "Gardens Bulletin," in his article "Hevea versus Fungi." The records from this compilation is made are the works and collections of H. N. Ridley, W. J. Gallagher, K. Bancroft, A. Sharples, W. N. C. Belgrave, R. M. Richards, and C. F. Baker. It is considered that additions will have to be made to this list from time to time as further investigations produce new records. Ridley in "The Agricultural Bulletin, Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States," Vol. X, 1911, page 141, quoting M. George Vernet gives on page 143 "a list of all pests recorded to the plant," and numerates 25 species of fungus, ending with the comment, "This may seem a formidable list but it is really small compared with the pests which attract most cultivated plants." The same remark may equally well apply to the list but it is to be hoped that the latter part of it may now be modified considerably. One might indeed at first wonder whether the Hevea would grow at all under the burden of such a number of uninvited guests, and so far no other kind of tree in Malaya has so many fungi observed on it. It must be remembered however that the chief reason so many fungi are here recorded is that so much individual attention has been paid to the Hevea by Malayan mycologists. There is no doubt that an equally large number of fungi would be found on any other tree grown under similar conditions and studied so assiduously and sympathetically by experts. In the present list the fungi are grouped according to their respective habitats. It will be seen that all parts of the tree carry their quota and that all the great groups of fungi are represented.     

 

Abstract:
The preceeding experiments, much abridged as they are here given, show that the toxic principle of the tuba-root kills insects by acting both as a contact and as a stomach poison. It kills some insects easily, and others with difficulty, but it usually acts slowly and seems to kill by motor paralysis. The above tests were made under srtict control at the Agricultural Boards Testing Laboratory of Vienna (Va). They put beyond dispute the efficacy of tuba-root as a plant-insect poison and give it a high place among agricultural insecticides.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
The following notes on the flowers of the Papaya (Carica papaya) are compiled from the observations of some plants grown in the Economic Gardens, Singapore. An examination of the pollen of different types of flowers showed a considerable difference in the germination of the pollen grains but unfortunately, owing to thefts of fruit the ultimate results of the work could not be observed.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
From a perusal of the recent publications of the Scientific departments of the surrounding countries one is struck with a noticeable change in the type of article now appearing.  Hitherto one has had the preliminary records and interim reports of the pioneer who tackled any subject that from time to time assumed economical importance. Now one sees on all sides atttempts to sum up the information so far gathered and published piecemeal and the result is a series of comprehensive papers, one might almost say monographs, which are now appearing and which deal exhaustively so far as our knowledge up to date goes of whole subjects rather than isolated and unconnected items. It would seem that the first period of preliminary investigation of the pioneer who was an all round scientific and technical man has closed and that in future the specialists who have been arriving in these parts in recent years will each conduct his investigations henceforth in a much more restricted field but correspondingly probing into his subject all the more deeply. In illustration of these comprehensive articles referred to the following are representative.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
In a recent number of the Philippine Agricultural Review, Vol. XI., 1918, page 13, Mr. P. J. Wester has remarked that existing literature seems to indicate the Coconut palm to have "probably not more than thirty five distinct varieties" and he adds that such is a remarkably small number considering the antiquity of its cultivation and its wide distribution. Whether this be right or not, investigation only can prove. In Singapore Island fourteen exist, twelve differing from each other in the nut, and two differing also in growth. With this issue of the Gardens'  Bulletin figures are given of the nuts of these Singpaore races.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
This little study of secondary jungle is a mite only towards the comprehension of the great complex "rain forest" of Malaya. It is an attempt to make use of the clearing of a small area, with a more or less known history, where nature had been for thirty years at her work of reconstruction. Many hundreds of such studies are needed, and the interest in them will grow as the problems to be solved become more and more apparent upon comparison of results. At present such comparison is impossible: for this study is but a beginning.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract 

Abstract:
In the Gardens' Bulletin, Vol. 1, pp. 396 - 399 (1917) an illustrated account of the Lesser Yam - Dioscorea esculenta, (Lour.) Burk., was given. The purpose of that account was to indicate its root-characters and to show how several races, then in cultivation, differed from each other. Those races came from India, French Indo-China and the Philippines islands.  Since 1917 three races from Papua have been introduced into the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, by the kindness of His Excellency Judge J. H. P. Murray, Lieut.-Governor of Papua: they bear names ascribed to the Hanuabada language, and are apparently from the country to the west of Port Moresby.  These three races are figured on the plate with this issue. One of them is quite unlike any of the races experimentally grown earlier; the other two are like the Philippine race "Buga" in general characters. All three produce male flowers, and are wild in Papua. This production of male flowers in wild races is one of the most curious things about Dioscorea esculenta, which otherwise produces no flowers at all. To understand how the female flowers alone should have been lost is impossible with our present knowledge.

 

Abstract:
The daily round in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, with visits of inspection to Penang or to other places in the Peninsula have afforded scattered opportunities during seven years, of making notes upon the behaviour of insects in regard to flowers. These notes will be brought into one view here.

Abstract:
It has long been a commonly observed fact in the history of many crops that at first, with only small and isolated plantings, there is likely to be little if any trouble with diseases and pests. This has often resulted in giving planters ill-founded hopes and false assurances as to the future. As the area planted is extended and large sections of country become occupied with the crop, endemic fungi and insects gradually become adapted to it, and others slowly filter in from abroad. The latter occurance is quite inevitable in new countries since the people of such countries cannot be convinced of the necessity of strict plant quarantine regulations efficiently administered, until driven to it by bitter experience - too late.

 

Abstract:
Planted in the exact centre of a small rectangular bit of ground close to the office in the Economic Garden stood a rather small rubber tree which bore the number 1844. Its dark grey bark attracted the attention to it ; and when it was more closely examined the foliage was seen to differ from that of the neighbouring trees of Hevea brasiliensis. Its history was unrecorded: but by the way in which it stood, it suggested that it came by no accident, but was set in its position as something apart from the other rubber trees.  When it flowered in 1917 it was seen that the flowers removed it far from H. brasiliensis.  The seeds also were found small, though not outside the extraordinarily wide limits in which H. brasiliensis varies: when it was tapped the latex was found to be yellow, meagre in amount and to remain tacky, with little elasticity. It appeared to be an undesirable type; but it was determined not to destroy it without enquiry. Flowering specimens were therefore dried and sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where Sir David Prain has been so good as to have it determined as Hevea confusa, Hemsl. The tree has now been destroyed on account of its proximity to the seed bearing trees, lest it should bring about cross-pollination; but seedling have been raised in order that if any purpose is found for it, the species may be available.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
The following enumeration is of fungi, collected with two exceptions, by Professor C. F. Baker during his short service with the Government of the Straits Settlements: and enumerated by Prof. Saccardo in the Bulletino del Orto Botanico Teale di Napoli, Vol. VI, (1918) at the pages given after each name. In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Straits Branch, No. 78, 1918, pp. 67 - 72, will be found descriptions of sixteen others under the title of Some Singapore Boletinae - a joint paper by M. N. Patouillard and Prof. C. F. Baker ; and again in the Bulletin de la Societe Mycologique de France XXXIV, 2e fasc. is described by M. Patouillard a further fungus Echinodia Theobromae from Cacao branches in Singapore  

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
When reporting upon the cultivation of the Greater Yam in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, in 1917, attention was called to the circumstance that the plants had been grown spaced 3 by 2 feet, and that in competition between each other at such a distance they had produced smaller tubers than in the earlier years. But space forbad again in 1918 that the distances between them should be increased, and consequently the yields of 1816, for instance, were not attained. Moreover there was not available quite so much manure ; and the want of it has also had an effect. The 1918 crop was consequently less abundant than the crops of 1916 and 1917.|

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract 

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
The purpose of this note is to illustrate some unfamiliar cultivated Dioscoreas, namely; - 1. the white or eight months Guinea Yam. 2.  the yellow or twelve months Guinea Yam, - Dioscorea cayenensis, Lamk. 3.  a Hai-nan Yam, probably D. belophylloides, Prain and Burkill. 4 an African Yam, D. dumetorum, Pax. 5.  an Indain Yam, D. pentaphylla, Linn., var, Linnaei, Prain and Burkill. 6.  a Malayan Yam, D. pentaphylla, Linn., var. malaica, Prain and Burkill. 7 and 8 Philippine Yam, D. pentaphylla, Linn., var. and an ally.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

Abstract:
This is the third of a series of reports upon the cultivation of the Greater Yam in the Gardens, Singapore. The first was printed in this Bulletin, Vol. I., No. 9, pp. 297 - 304. and in it outline camera lucida drawings of sixteen races were given. The second report was printed in Vol. I., double No. 11 - 12, pp. 371 - 196, with illustrations from photographs of fifteen races upon six plates. In this report fourteen races are illustrated upon four plates, no. 76, appearing upon two of them. Besides these three reports, there is another in the Philippine Agriculturist and Forester, Vol. III., 1915, pp. 205 - 209, with illustrations of seven races. When the first report in the Gardens' Bulletin and that in the Philippine Agriculturist and Forester were published, the numbering system of the Gardens had not been made consistent, and was not referred to: therefore it is now convenient to draw into one list the races already illustrated, - being in all thirty-eight. This list is printed as an appendix on pp. 12 - 44.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
The following taken from the Agricultural News, West Indies, of August 11th, 1917, Vol. XVI, pp. 254 - 255, is worth reading and digesting ; for in Malaya, damping-off is one of the greatest troubles that a gardener has to contend with. The method recommended in it has been tried in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore; and so far there is nothing to be said against it except the necessity of teaching the ignorant tukang kebun to handle the Sulphuric Acid respectfully; and as the use of burnt earth can be avoided in some measure, pecuniary gain is brought into sight.

 

Abstract:
No abstract

 

Abstract:
The year 1919, the centenary of the founding of the settlement of Singapore, brings in the sixtieth year of Botanic Gardens; and their early history is becoming obscure. Moreover the records are only in the two older Singapore newspapers, which is laborious to consult, and of which single files exist. These two reasons enough for reproducing here six reports, and for bringing them into one view by a brief introduction, with quotations from the old papers.