NEW VEGETABLE GARDEN.
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In consequence of the abolition of the site for building purposes of the garden which supplied the Governor's table with vegetables, it was necessary to find a place elsewhere for use, the only place available was the site of the old tennis courts at Government House; the stone of these was removed and new soil carried in which made a good garden so far as it went, but the area is very small and insufficient to allow a full supply of vegetables.
RAINFALL.
The rainfall in the gardens was 83.91 inches in comparison with 65.99 inches in the previous year. The daily returns are given in Appendix A.
HERBARIUM AND LIBRARY.
Dr. AUGUSTINE HENRY, F.L.S., has presented another fine dried collection of 1,110 species of plants for the herbarium; these were collected in Western China.
Additional work in the New Territory has prevented me from being able to devote any scarcely to herbarium work.
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Annual Reports, Bulletins, &c. have been received from the following establishments to the chiefs of whom my thanks are due :—
Calcutta, Ceylon, Durban, Grenada, Haarlem, Jamaica, Kolonial Museum Haarlem, Mauritius, Mysore, Milwaukee, Missouri, New South Wales, Ottawa, Rio de Janeiro, Saharanpur, Straits Settlements, Sydney, Trinidad, the Agricultural Departments of Cape of Good Hope, England, Queensland, United States of America, University of California, Zanzibar, Forest Administration in Assam, Ajmere Merwara, Baluschistan, Bengal, Burma, Bombay, Central Province, Coorg, Hyderabad, Madras, North-West Province and Oudh, Punjab, Western Australia.
The following works have been added to the library :-
Purchased :-
Flora Capensis, Part II.
History of European Botanical Discoveries in China, Vols. I and II, and Maps of China. Flora of Tropical Africa, Vol. III, Parts I and III.
Gardeners' Chronicle.
Journal of Botany.
Botanical Magazine.
Presented :-
Hooker's Icones Plantarum, by Royal Gardens, Kew.
Kew Bulletin,
Do.
FORESTRY.
Planting to the extent of 54,582 trees has been continued in the island and Kowloon in 10 different localities and in various new and old roads where trees would thrive. There are some roads, especially in Kowloon, which are wide and treeless and which it might, without consideration, be thought might be planted, but which really, afford no promise of success, either on account of exposure, unsuitable soil, or other reasons. Statistics are given in Appendix B.
THINNING OF PLANTATIONS,
This work has been carried on in 12 localities ranging over the whole Colony; 45,411 trees were removed and they sold for $666.96 net. The total net revenue for forestry was $708.14.
All thinnings which have been made to date for many years past are only the smallest and worst crees to allow free growth to the better ones which remain.
Particulars are contained in Appendix C.
PROTECTIVE SERVICE.
The year has seen a further reduction in the numbers of illicit tree cutting, only 640 trees having en reported. The number of cases brought forward by forest guards was only 25, of which there ere 24 convictions.