ge Uy eee ee ee, So rs —~ ee ee in a 2) Sly sea at ra ae raise sae Pt Tee eee oF wes ; 5, tare. oo \ ite eae ee =e REPORT Ne ee KS 33258 BN NE a Pat ~ \ t is . tay 7 ON NATAL BOTANIC GARDENS, } AND y Colonial Herbarium | FOR THE > \ NS ABS CAKE en eS eer ay ne pa- ets wile Sete PE ae See = — ee = a ei = efit int =F ae ses be eS. Ae wa 2c Gas oo os a ch ry A ef = = — se: — wr ES Ms) aes asm 6X YEAR 1904-1905.%o. = ers 7a BY | \ J. MEDLEY WOOD, A.L.S., ‘ Corresponding Member of the Pharmaceutical Society ( SSS OS Sn 5 i ii a ee 3 a ee a Pie Sk Ree of Great Britain, N DIRECTOR. / on ~~ ~~ > oo-4 \ ia DURBAN : Wj Bennett & Davis, Prinrers, GARDINER AND SmirH STREETS. a2 a ¢ SSS —~— : 1905. Durban Botanic Society. ee REPORT NATAL BOTANIG GARDENS, July Ist, 1904, to June 30th, 1908, J MEDLEY WOOD, A.L:S., Corres ponding Member of the Pharmaceu tical Society of Great Britain, DIRECTOR. 94185 Durban Botanic Society. President: Stik B. W. GREENACRE, K.B, Committee: Mr. M. S. Evans Mr. H. H. PUNTAN Mr. W. BUTCHER Mr. T. W. EDMONDS Hon. R. JAMESON, M.L.C. Mr. J. Dick Government Members : Mr. J. S. STEEL Mr. J. D. BALLANCE Mayors of Durban and Pietermaritzburg, ex officio. Sec. and Accountant : Creasurer : Mr. G. BURGESS Mr. J. MEDLEY Woop, A.L.S. Director: Mr. J. MEDLEY Woop, A.L.S. Curator : Mr. JAS. WYLIE. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Field Museum of Natural History Library http://archive.org/details/reportonnatalbo190405wood ; NATAL BOTANIC GARDENS. BYE-LAWS. ~2@eeter-— 1. The Gardens are open to the public every week-day from sunrise to sunset; on Sundays fiom 2 o’clock p.m until sunset 2. The only public entrance is opposite to B.tanic Gardens Road, and persons are prohibited from entering or leaving by any other way. 3. Children under 10 years of age, unless accompanied by a competent protector, cannot be admitted. 4. Persous accompanied by a dog or dogs cannot be admitted 5. No vehicle shall be allowed entrance, and all bicycles must be left at the gate, but upon application to the Director or Curator, invalids in wheeled chairs may be admitted. 6. Admission may be granted to picnic parties if permission be first obtained from the Curator. 7. Visitors are requested to keep to the paths, and any person sliding, running or walking up and down the grassed embankments will be liable to be expelled from the Gardens. 8. Touching or handling plants, fruits, or flowers is strictly prohibited, the indiscriminate use of butterfly nets is prohibited, but permission to use such nets may be obtained from the Director or Curator, and will be available foi the day of issue only. ‘his permission will not be granted on Sundays, and may at once be withdrawn if the privilege is abused. 9. All games, climbing of trees, shooting with guns or catapults, throwing of stones or fruit, disorderly or indecent behaviour, are strictly probibited. 10. Any person abstracting, destroying, or damaging any property of the Society shall be hable to be prosecuted. 11. The Director is hereby authorised to prosecute offenders under the fore-going Bye-Laws whenever found to be necessary. SSCSSOOS The Jubilee Couservatory is open to the public as under :— Week-days from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., in Summer; from 9 a.m. to sunset in winter; Sundays from 2.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. in summer ; from 2.30 p.m. to sunset in winter. The public are admitted to the Nurseries and Forcing Houses on business only, during business hours, and on Sundays and Public Holidays they are closed altogether to visitors, REPORT. BOSCOOOE Boranic Garpens, Berra, Durban, Juty, 1905, To the President and Committee, Durban Botanic Socrety. GENTLEMEN, I have the honour of presenting my Twenty-fourth Annual Report on the work of the Botanic Gardens and Herbarium under my charge, and taken as a whole I venture to think that the Report is not altogether an unfavourable one. We have had times of drought, during which the plants have suffered to some extent, but the losses were but very few. We have also had on two occasions very heavy rains witb high winds, the first, which occurred in December, caused but little damage to us ; the rain fellin torrents for some time; cut up the walks and washed down the soil in many places, but as it was not accompanied by high winds little further damage was done The next flood, which occurred on the night of May 31st, was much more serious, as the wind reached to a heavy galeand did very serious damage in our vicinity, but we escaped compara- tively lightly, two trees only were blown down, viz.: one of Euclea natalensis, and one of a native species of Huphorbia, but as we have duplicates of each in the Garden the loss was not a serious one. A Palm, Avrenga saccharifera, which has been in the Garden for many years, and was for the first time bearing fruit, was blown over, but not quite dislodged from the ground It is more than 30 feet high, but has been raised into position again, and it is hoped that it may recover. Numbers of branches were broken from the trees, but none were very seriously injured. Our rain gauge unfortunately overflowed, _ but we understand that more than 10 inches of rain fell in a very few hours. The Abstract of Meteorological Observations annexed hereto by the kindness of the Government Astronomer will show that 11:12 inches of rain fell in the month, and that the total rainfall for the year was 42°03 inches. It has been stated by some that is the heaviest rainfall that has been noted in Natal, at any rate in so short a time, and 8 probably this is quite correct. It will therefore be interesting to record here the rainfall which we experienced in Durban 50 years ago, and of which I have a very distinct recollection. I quote from Cullingworth’s Almanac for 1857. RaInFaLL FROM Ist JuLy, 1855, ro 30TH Junz, 1856. Taken at the Natal Agricultural and Horticultural Society’s Garden’s, Durban, Natal. 1855. 1856. July - 3°326 January - 10609 August - 3°796 February - 5°430 September - 21°509 | March - 13618 October - 4°531 | April - 29428 November - 2°516 May - ‘653 December - 20°824 — June - ‘709 56°502 | 60°447 | 56°502 Total. - 116°949 Of the rain which fellin April I have a very distinct recol- — jection, nnd it was said at the time that between the Saturday evening when it commenced, to the Wednesday afternoon, when it ceased, that 26 inches of rain had fallen. However that may be, it is certain that the Umgeni ran over the eastern vlei, and into Cato’s Creek, and that it was not untila week after the rain had ceased that the rivers Umlauga and Umhloti were fordable, the writer aud two companions being almost, if not, the first to cross them, having been taken over in a boat which on the pre- vious day had been sent from Durban to act as a ferry boat at the Umgeni drift; the Umhlanga and Umhloti were more than breast high, and were crossed with difficulty. The population was not so great as now, and the Indians had not arrived, so that, although there was some loss of life, it was not nearly so great as the flood of May 3lst. The kitchens for the Indian labourers, alluded to in my last Report, have been erected and are now in use, and the garden seats, also aliuded to in the same Report, are now distributed in different parts of the Gardens, but I regret to say that the practice of defacing them by carving initials on the seats and backs has not been discontinued. One young man was detected iu the act and gave his name and address to the Curator, both of which proved to be incorrect, as two letters written to him were returned by the Post Office Authorities, marked, “ unknown.’ The next person detected will not escape so easily. 9 As a large number of publications in pamphlet form are being received, and are accumulating to such an extent that it becomes difficult to find any particular one at the time when it is required, | have had a number of strawboard cases with wooden ends made and they are conspicuously numbered on the back from 1 to 100. These cases open on one side and are kept closed by two hard wood buttons. They are kept in a large cupboard made for the purpose, and an alphabetical index is kept in the cupboard, so that any pamphlet required may be found and withdrawn with a very slight amount of trouble, and [ find this plan to be quite successful. [ have also obtained a set of Library Bureau Cards, and a two-draw case, this also for pur- poses of reference, I find most useful. The new Fernery, alluded to in my last Report, was completed and opened to the public at the beginning of April, It is now well filled with ferns and is a great attraction to visitors. The woodwork is all of the best teak and the building has been very well constructed ; the heavy storm of May 31st did not injure it in the slightest degree. The fence along Sydenham Read, alluded to in my last report, has not yet been erected, the reason being that the Durban Corporation wish to take a quantity of soil from the hillside in the upper and unused portion of the Garden ground for the purpose of: repairing the road preparatory to hardening it. It was therefore arranged that in 1 eturn for this they would erect at their expense the fence along Sydenham Road, and as they are not yet prepared to undertake the work of hardening the road, the matter is for a time inabeyance. It has long been a cause of complaint that visitors to the Gardens were not able to obtain any refreshment either in the Garden or within a reasonable distance, it has therefore been decided to erect a Tea Room at the side of the ground adjoining the Sydenham Road. Plans have been prepared by the Architect, Mr. Fyfe, and the building will be commenced as soon as possible, and will then be let to a contractor on conditions to be formulated by the Com- mittee. As soon as the building is completed and in working order it wil! be possible to open a gate into the Sydenham Road, but it must be clearly understood that tie gate will only be open while the Tea Room is open, and that the person having charge of the Tea Room will also have charge of the gate, and that Natives and Indians, unless accompanied by Kuropeans, will not be allowed to use it as a thoroughfare through the Gardens. It will be noted that in September last alterations were made in the Bye-Laws, and assented to by His Excellency the Governor. In place of present Bye-Law No. 5 substitute: ‘‘No vehicle shall be allowed entrance, and all bicycles must be left at the gate, but upon application to the Director or Curator, invalids in wheeled chairs may be admitted.” In place of the present Bye- Law No. 7 substitute; ‘“‘ Visitors are requested to keep to 10 the paths, and any person running, walking, or sliding, up or down the grassed embankments, will be liable to be expelled from the Gardens.” In addition to Bye-Law No. 8: “ The indiscriminate use of butterfly nets is prohibited, but permission to use such nets may be obtained from the Director or Curator, and will be available for the day of issue only. This permission will not be granted on Sundays, and may at once be withdrawn if the privilege is abused.” I regret having to report that the attempt ts raise plants of the Victoria Regia was a failure, the seeds planted proved to be bad, only two plants were reared, both of which were weakly and were never fit, to place in the tank. ‘ a rs - 4 : u rs 1 0 ee G i Y x oi : fete: ii { mass a u 1 , 7 i vi ‘ ) , = a ty f ee i 1) 5 ir 2 AW + ; =, x 2 bali 143 , oat : sae & vy iy ?. % P ‘ ‘ ay s Hat we : rE 7 Pm, ad - * 4 ‘ f 4 : | i + _ > Colonial Herbarium. REPORT FROM July Ist, 1904, to June 30th, 1905, BY J “MEDEEY° WOOD, “A.L.S., Corresponding Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, DIRECTOR OF BOTANIC GARDENS, DURBAN. COLONIAL HERBARIUM. —— ——=SOODNOOHOCS = During the year now ended the work in the Herbarium has been successfully carried on. Three Parts of “ Natal Plants” have been published. Part 2 of Volume 4 containing miscellaneous plants was published in July, 1904, and Part 3 of the same Volume in June, 1905. Part 1 of Volume 5, con- taining Grasses only, was published in December, 1904, and Part 2 of the same Volume, also containing Grasses only, is now in the hands of the printer and lithographer and will soon be published, the illustrations of the grasses and also the dissections and comparisons have all been done by Miss Franks, the senior assistant, who has done the work to my entire satis- faction. The plates of miscellaneous plants in Vol. 4 have been done by Miss Dean, the junior assistant, with some assistance from Miss Franks. In the work of figuring the grasses difficulties have occurred which necessitated reference to the Herbarium