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The two archival photos show immigrant Chinese farmers in Singapore in 1890 (the group) and 1920 (the single farmer). The former depicts tobacco and pepper crops; in the latter, the farmer is tilling a raised bed which is the traditional way in which fast-growing Chinese leafy vegetables are grown.
Garcinla mangostana. A popular fruit, the Mangosteen was once the subject of a clipper race to see who could get the fruit to Queen Victoria first.
Nephelium lappaceum. The Rambutan is one of the most attractive of indigenous fruits.
From 1836 onwards, when sugar and cotton were introduced for commercial cultivation, many other crops were grown in Singapore. Among these were indigenous plants like gambier and pepper and such introduced ones as nutmeg, coffee, cloves, sugar cane, tobacco and pineapples. Most of the introduced crops eventually failed, either because the soil or the climate was found to be unsuitable or because disease wiped out the enterprise. However, street names still commemorate these early attempts at agriculture: Nutmeg Road, Orange Grove Road, Orchard Road, for example, are very much still in existence, as are D'Almeida Street, Balestier Road, Dunman Road, Oxley Road, Prinsep Street and Scotts Road, all named after the men who tried to cultivate such crops. Here and there in various parts of Singapore, more tangible remains can be found. In a former cemetery in the Bukit Timah district there are two mature nutmeg trees, and in the same area, near the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, five venerable clove trees grew until they were unfortunately destroyed in the recent construction of a condominium.
These agricultural efforts resulted in the progressive destruction of the native forest. Gambier required firewood to boil the leaves in order to extract the saleable substance; so huge numbers of trees were cut down for fuel. The cultivation of pepper went hand in hand with that of gambier, since once the leaves had been boiled for their extract they were used as an essential fertilizer for the pepper vines.
More land was required for "pineries", commercial smallholdings that grew pineapples. According to a writer in the 1860s, they were the staple fruit for European dinner tables. The pineapple was a notable immigrant from the New World; no one knows who introduced it to Asia, but by 1856 it was a significant crop in Singapore. An account of the agriculture of the Settlement states that it was extensively grown west of the harbour by Bugis people. A Pineapple Industry Ordinance was passed in 1934 to control it and a variety called "Singapore Red" was developed.
European residence at the end of the 1800s: the type of garden is typical of the time. Note the topiary bush, clipped into the shape of a bird, and the prolific Antigonon leptopus growing up to the first floor.
Later European house in the "Black-and-White" style in the Botanic Gardens shows the Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera), the largest fan palm in the world, in the foreground.
As the population grew and the town expanded, more permanent houses were built. The homes of European residents are always described as being out of town, spacious and surrounded by gardens, with an abundance of fruit trees. Descriptions of the viands offered at dinner tables list the native rambutan, mangosteen, duku, and banana as well as the exotic pineapple, the papaya, and various kinds of Annonas. These fruit trees were planted after the failure of many of the plantation ventures and as late as the mid-1880s. But ornamental plants, too, were by then part of the scene. With the development of the Settlement from its early frontier town character to a more organized and prosperous town and with the increasing number of women coming to Singapore, the idea of gardening, at least among the European population, had arrived.
Singapore was governed from India until 1867, so it is probable that seeds and cuttings came from there, particularly from Calcutta. Writing in the 1840s, Dr Thomas Oxley lists many ornamentals in local gardens, among them Acacia, Agave, Allamanda, Barleria, Bignonia, Clerodendrum, Crinum, Cassia, Erythrina, Dracaena, assorted Ficus, Gardenia, Hibiscus, Jatropha, Lantana, Murraya, Nerium, Plumbago, Plumeria, Quisqualis, and Yucca - a fine mix of indigenous as well as introduced plants. There was also contact with other tropical botanic gardens, some ruled by powers other than the British. The Calcutta Botanic Garden was under Nathaniel Wallich, a Dane, who was to play an important role in the development of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Plant species moved unhindered from one colony to another, from East to West, and vice versa. In this way, Singapore received rather early in its modern life a great number of plants that were indigenous to other parts of the world.
European group, 1890s. Their gardens were typically laid out with lawns, hedges and tennis courts.
Photogravure by CJ Kleingrothe depicts the Botanic Gardens road at the end of the 1890s. By this time many plants would have arrived in Singapore through the Botanic Gardens. Photos top left and far right courtesy of Antiques of the Orient.
The gardens of the Europeans were laid out with lawns, hedges, and tennis courts. James Cameron, an English resident, wrote that the hedges were of Bamboo and wild Heliotrope; the latter was very likely Duranta repens or D. procumbens, the flowers of which greatly resemble Heliotrope in colour, scent and form. Tennis court fencing was covered by a pale lavender Ipomoea and Passiflora laurifolia that grew very quickly. There are no extant garden books or newspaper articles written by English-women in Singapore before the 1950s, but some written earlier in the Malay States display the same longing for the flowers of 'home' and 'homelike' displays as those written by the Memsahibs of India in the days of the Raj. All discuss the kind of flowers that are associated with the English cottage garden that they tried to grow 'out East'. It is not surprising that Dr Oxley's list includes many flowers that are traditionally associated with this style of garden.
This feeling of something from 'home' is also displayed by the Chinese, Indian and Indonesian immigrants who came to Singapore over the years. Immigrant communities very often carry with them plants, seeds or cuttings of two major kinds. The first of these, almost always scented, are votive plants used in rituals, as offerings to deities, as 'good luck' plants and on ceremonial occasions. Among them is Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, the 'Sad Tree', a native Indian tree which forms part of Hindu and Buddhist ritual offerings. The scented flowers are white and coral and bloom at night; by the dawn they have 'wept' onto the ground where devout ladies gather them for votive offerings. In Singapore it can be found in the Hindu and Buddhist temples in Ceylon Road and St Michael's Road. A shrub or small tree native to South China, Aglaia odorata is often planted in front of Chinese houses together with Platycladus orientalis. Both are 'good luck' plants, always placed side by side. Aglaia has minute yellow flowers that in the past were used to scent tobacco and was once called the 'tobacco flower'. Platycladus is a cypress, the lace-like fronds of which are placed within the gifts exchanged at Cantonese weddings by the bride and groom's families. A plant common to both Indian and Chinese cultures is Nelumbium, the lotus. Plumeria, the frangipani, a Mexican native, arrived in Singapore via an unknown intermediate source. It, too, is used in temple offerings. Other sweet-scented votive flowers include Michella champaca, Michehafigo and Vallaris, the latter being a favourite of Peranakan Nonyas (Straits-born Chinese women).
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