TREES
With the demolition work on the City Hall site it has also been found necessary to cut down the two trees that stood there. These were fine specimens of the red-flowered silk-cotton trees, the Gossampinus malabarica of the botanists. They were about as tall as the building itself, and evidently very old trees, probably planted about the time the fountain gave its sylvan tone to that spot. It is a pity to see the old trees gradually disappearing from the heart of the city. One recalls the several banyans that once flourished near the bottom of Wyndham Street, the old "Flower Street" which retained that name up to a few years ago; and there was also Queen's Road and Lee House Street, at the bottom end of Battery Path, that was felled about eight years back, so as to give room for the growing motor traffic of the city to speed safely on its way.
1093