materials. This first Garden closed in 1829. It was not until 30 years later that the present Singapore Botanic Gardens began in 1859, when the Singapore Agri-horticultural Society was granted 32 hectares of land in Tanglin by the colonial government, which had obtained it from the merchant Hoo Ah Kay, better known as Whampoa, in exchange for land at Boat Quay. 1859–1876 The new gardens started off functioning primarily as a “pleasure park” for the society's members. Lawrence Niven was hired as superintendent and landscape designer to turn what were essentially overgrown plantations and a tangle of virgin rainforest into a public park. He and his team worked on developing the Gardens to reflect the styles of the English Landscape Garden Movement. This included a series of “interconnecting pathways and promenades, a levelled parade area for military bands to play music... and the establishment of ornamental planting”. The layout of the Gardens as it is today is largely based on Niven's design. In 1866 the Gardens expanded in the Northwest direction by about 12 hectares. The excavation of Swan Lake took place in 1866. In 1868, the Burkill Hall was completed. The Singapore Agri-horticultural Society ran out of funds, which led to the colonial government taking over the management of the gardens in 1874. In 1875, the Raffles Library Committee selected a horticulturist, Henry James Murton, to serve as the first Superintendent of Gardens, while a zoology expert, William Krohn, was hired as the superintendent of the Zoological Garden to build up a collection of animals within the gardens, establishing the first zoo in Singapore. By 1877, the developed parts of the gardens were dotted with enclosures housing a collection of about 150 animals. 1877–1942 The first rubber seedlings came to the gardens from Kew Gardens in 1877. A naturalist, Henry Nicholas Ridley, or Mad Ridley as he was known, became the director of the gardens in 1888 and spearheaded rubber cultivation. Successful in his experiments with rubber planting, Ridley convinced planters across Malaya to adopt his methods. The results were astounding; Malaya became the world's number one producer and exporter of natural rubber. In 1879, the Palm Valley was established on the site of the former Economic Garden. Nathaniel Cantley, who replaced Murton as the second Superintendent of Gardens in 1880, oversaw the building installation of Ridley Hall in 1882. Other installations included the Plant House, an arboretum in