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ernment House. It then occupied temporary accommodation on several occasions until it was eventually accommodated, in 1954, near the Department of Biology in the Northcote Science Building of Hong Kong University.
To satisfy the increasing requests for advice and technical assistance, the Gardens Department began, in 1949, to issue a series of monthly articles on everyday local gardening matters and provided them free on application. They were also published in a local magazine to obtain a wider distribution. The local and introduced plants in the Botanic Gardens were identified and re-labelled and the first post-war flower show was held in June 1954.
Following another major restructuring of Government offices, the departments of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and Gardens were amalgamated into one Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in October 1950. Later in 1953 the Gardens Division, including the Botanic Gardens and the Herbarium, was transferred to the Urban Council and Urban Services Department which was also responsible for a wide range of services in the urban area.
The herbarium staff was comparatively active, making field collecting and preparing the Check List of Hong Kong Plants. It was first issued in 1962 as a cyclostyled edition, enumerating all of the identified species and varieties of vascular plants growing in Hong Kong, both native and introduced. The check list was revised in 1965 and 1966.
In 1965 Mr. J.D. Whitehead was appointed Principal Amenities Officer on the retirement of Mr. R.E. Dean and the post of Superintendent of Gardens was abolished. The programme of providing recreation areas had been expanding rapidly to meet the demand of an increasing population and increasing standard of living. The Botanic Gardens were maintained though serious botanic work was carried out mainly by the herbarium staff. The herbarium collection was moved back to Government premises, on the 8th floor of Causeway Bay Magistracy Building, in 1967. The booklet, Hong Kong Trees, illustrated with coloured photographs, was published in 1969, which became the first of a series of