GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.-No. 204.
The following Annual Report of the Superintendent of Botanical and Afforestation Department for the year 1883, which was laid before the Legislative Council on the 22nd instant, is published for general information.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 24th May, 1884.
FREDERICK STEWART,
Acting Colonial Secretary,
BOTANIC GARDEN,
HONGKONG, 30th April, 1884.
SIR, For the information of His Excellency the Governor, I have the honour to submit the Annual Report on the Progress and Condition of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1883.
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2. In compliance with instructions received in C.S.O. No. 89, and in fulfilment of a suggestion which I made in my letter No. 40 of 1882—C.S.O. No. 3,353—that I should furnish a "review of the works in afforestation during the last few years, and our present position and future prospects," with regard to these works, I include a summary of afforestation works conducted since the commencement of 1880 up to the end of the year, 1883, under report, and in accordance with His Excellency's wishes, I attach maps of Hongkong and British Kowloon, on which are shown the situations and areas of each year's works, to which I have added the woods which were in existence previous to 1878, and the lands which have been reserved and allotted for grazing purposes. I intended to have prepared this information for the report on 1882, but I could not possibly get time last year for its accomplishment while I was without the services of an European assistant to relieve me of a considerable amount of garden management which absorbed so much time. I should have liked to have also shown the proposed land which should be reserved for the production of grass for domestic and other uses in the Colony; but as my letter, No. 3, of January 10th last, in which the important subject of the control and regulation of grass-cutters was treated, is probably still under consideration, I have omitted the delineation of those lands.
GARDENS.
3. In addition to the usual routine work of the Gardens the chief extra work has been :-
4. The laying out of the new piece of ground between the New Garden plateau and Robinson Road. About two thirds of this has been laid out in two terraces. The upper terrace, which measures on an average 172 feet long by 105 feet wide, has been arranged as a nursery for the propagation and culture of plants in pots. To accommodate the plants nearly the whole space has been arranged in table-like beds seven feet wide and two feet apart, raised by brick-work to about eighteen inches above the ground level. To this place most of the pot plants from the old nursery have been removed. The range of glass-roofed pits which was in the old nursery has been removed and placed in a suitable position in this nursery. This arrangement permits of the nursery work being brought under a much more methodical system. The somewhat exposed situation at present is a great drawback to cultivation, but as the bamboo hedges, with which the place has been surrounded, grow and thicken the injury from winds will much decrease. Below this is the second terrace which is about 195 feet long by 78 feet wide. This has been divided by three longitudinal and two transverse four feet wide walks; the intervening areas will be used for the propagation and growth of plants in the open ground preparatory to their being placed in the ornamental ground. New introductions will be acclimatized and proved here before they have permanent positions assigned to them. This terrace also is surrounded by bamboo hedges to shelter the plants from strong winds. The two terraces have been supplied with 900 feet of underground drains to carry off the surplus water during heavy rains. During the past nine months about 10,000 Eucalyptus trees have been reared here for planting on the hills. The remaining third of the new piece of land is well in hand and will be completed during the present year. It will be laid out chiefly for the reception of a number of palms which are waiting for suitable accommodation before they can be turned out of the pots which they at present occupy. The palm ground on the plateau is full and as there is no room for extensions on either side we must provide for the new introductions in the ground above referred to. If there had been room for the purpose it would have been much better to have had the palm collection all in one place than to divide it.