Sessional_Paper_1906 — Page 566

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West End Park.-A number of men have been employed at various times throughout the year in cutting grass, pulling up weeds and keeping the place generally in a fair condition.

Government Offices' Grounds.—These have been kept in good order throughout the year. In continuation of the previous year's work bare patches under trees have been covered with "blue grass".

Roadside Rockeries. The numerous rockeries in various parts of the town have received attention from time to time. In the Glenealy rockeries a lot of re-planting was done in the Spring.

A list is appended (Table II) of the various Gardens, Parks, Rockeries, etc., for which the department is wholly or partly responsible.

HERBARIUM.

The routine work of the Herbarium consists in keeping the collections dry and free from insects, and the mounting, poisoning and sorting of new specimens. These duties were satisfactorily done by the two Chinese Assistants during the year. Little time could be given by the European staff to botany, and the collection of about 3,000 specimens brought by the Superintendent from Fokien still remains in the boxes in which it arrived. During the year another and larger collection (from Central and Western China) was acquired. The utilization of these collections as well as the identification of a collection of economic products for the Imperial Institute remained on hand at the end of the year. It is, however, hoped that time will be found to clear off these arrears of work in 1906.

The chief recipients of Herbarium specimens were:—

The Arnold Arboretum; Botanic Gardens at Calcutta, Kew, Manila and Singapore; British Museum; Professor MARTELLI (Italy); Parks and Open Spaces, Shanghai.

The chief donor or Herbarium specimens was :-

The Imperial Botanical Museum, Berlin.

BOTANICAL INVESTIGATIONS.

Expedition to Central Fokien,

At the end of April a well-equipped expedition was sent by the Government in charge of the Superintendent to investigate the botanical resources of the Province of Fokien. Four trained Chinese collectors were taken. Foochow was reached on the 25th of April and a houseboat taken at once for the exploration of the more easily navigable parts of the Yuen Fu and Min Rivers. As the Hongkong Herbarium was almost devoid of specimens from Fokien and as our knowledge of the flora of that Province is very meagre it was necessary to collect specimens of every species, even down to the weeds of the cultivated fields. This collecting was at once begun on the plains and foothills of the ranges surrounding Foochow, and in 3 days about 300 species were collected. The houseboat formed a convenient base for drying and sorting the specimens. On the 29th of April the first rapids were reached, about 35 miles up the Yuen Fu. There is a good deal of virgin forest above 700 feet on the mountains which at this point begin to close in on the river. The finest forest that was seen was that surrounding the Monastery of Fong Kong Tse. The enormous trees of Liquidam- bar, Maple, Oak and Pine which grew there sheltered a rich flora, and a large number of additional species were collected on the damp rocks and along the mossy rivulets. On the 30th a return was commenced downstream and Foochow was reached again on May 2nd. The chief cultivations on the banks of the Yuen Fu are Lichee, Water Plum (Myrica rubra), Opium, Wheat, Oats, Paddi and Rape. In the steep gorges bamboo is extensively grown. Full notes were made on the cultivation and manipulation of these crops, especially on the extraordinarily ingenious methods of transporting the bamboos from the mountains."