418
10. The clearing away of débris, and preparations for replanting, &c., occupied all available time up to the end of 1894, and well into the present year.
GLASS HOUSES.
11. During a portion of the cold season the temperature falls so low that many tender plants which have to be kept, or housed, during the coldest weather, in glass houses suffer from cold. This has been remedied to a slight extent by the use of kerosene stoves, which, however, besides being troublesome and giving off an offensive smell, afford insufficient heat, and, I fear that fumes proceeding from the stoves are injurious to plant life. I had funnels, with tubes attached, placed over the stoves, and the tubes carried through the roofs of the houses, and so arranged that injurious fumes were carried off without their coming into contact with the plants, but also that the heat was retained almost completely within the houses. The heat obtainable by this means is, however, insufficient.
12. All the glass houses should now be provided with hot-water apparatus which could be heated from one modern improved boiler. The apparatus could be provided at a very moderate cost and the consumption of fuel would be very small for the short time during which artificial heat is essential.
ORCHIDS.
13. A very fair amount of success has been achieved in the cultivation of orchids, this success is sufficiently proved to encourage the continuation of efforts to cultivate and extend the collections. Some orchids can be grown well in open, shaded houses, but many of them at certain periods would be better in glass houses, while another class of orchids-those from hotter regions-should be always under glass. Glass houses are not only needed to provide a higher temperature for part of the year but also to protect the plants from storms of wind and rain. A suitable glass house could be erected in the nursery at a small cost, and it could be heated from the same boiler which I have alluded to above in my proposition for heating the other houses.
14. In appendix B I give a list of orchids which are now in cultivation here, and most of which are succeeding very well. The list is inserted not because it represents unusual extensiveness or excellence of kinds-although there are very many good kinds in the list-but to show what encourage- ment there is for the application of continued efforts in the cultivation and extension of this interesting, beautiful and fashionable class of plants. Those kinds marked with an asterisk have flowered in the Gardens.
LAWN CATERPILLAR.
(Thialleta signifera, Walk.)
15. This caterpillar has given the usual trouble to circumvent its action in the destruction of lawns. It seems impossible to stamp it out, but the remedy-Jeyes' fluid, diluted-previously reported, is the best thing yet discovered to keep it in check.
The Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station last year published an elaborate bulletin by Mr. E. P. FELT on "Grass-Eating Insects" of the genus Crambus, but amongst the remedies there given there is nothing which is as effective for the Thialleta as that which has been adopted here.
EXCHANGE OF LAND.
19
16. When the New Gardens were being formed in 1871 an old, open nullah was built over and covered with soil. It was afterwards discovered that this nullah was a boundary of the "Glenealy property, and that by the filling up of the nullah and laying out of the new land as a portion of the Gardens an encroachment had been made by the Government on the "Glenealy" property. This pro- perty subsequently changed hands and the new Roman Catholic Cathedral was then built on it. Last year the Cathedral authorities required an extension of land and proposed that it should be given them in exchange for the 1871 encroachment, to which the Government acceded. This arrangement readjusts the boundary line of the Gardens to the mutual satisfaction of both parties and gives a well-defined line.
DISTRIBUTION AND INTERCHANGE OF PLANTS AND SEEDS,
17. The receipts were 1,238 plants and 116 fbs, of seeds in 277 packages and 4 wardian cases. The chief donors were-
Assistant Superintendent of Forests, Penang.
Acclimatizing Association, Southern California. Aldridge. Dr., Ichang,
Botanic Gardens, Bangalore.
British Guiana.
Jamaica.
>>
19
Mauritius.
"
Natal.
"}
*
Rio de Janeiro.
"
+
3)
""
Royal, Ceylon.
Botanic Gardens, Royal Calcutta.
""
17
""
51
37
Barton, J.
21
17
Kew.
Saharanpur. Singapore. Trinidad.
Botanist, Government, Melbourne. Bodinier, Rev. E.
Boxall, W., England.
Bourne, F. S. A., Canton.