394 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Madras in the steamer * Hindostan, which was expected to 
call at Galle about the eighth. I was, however, prevented 
from accomplishing this plan by a very untoward circum- 
stance. Being unable to obtain a seat in either of the two 
coaches which run between Colombo and Kandy, I was 
obliged, from my slower mode of travelling, to sleep at night 
at the half-way ‘Rest House,’ which is situated in one of the 
most unhealthy places in the island, and there imbibed the 
seeds of a jungle fever, which three days afterwards laid me 
up, at little more than an hour’s notice. It was fortunate for 
me that, anticipating what was about to occur, I secured the 
immediate advice of the son of an old friend of yours, the 
highly esteemed Irish naturalist, Mr. Templeton. He is @ 
Surgeon in the Army, who has been several years in Ceylon, 
and, you will be glad to learn, inherits his father’s love for 
the study of Natural History. At present he is engaged 
in working up materials for a * Fauna’ of Ceylon. 
Notwithstanding the active treatment adopted, it was 
ten days before I was able to stir out, and in the mean- 
time the steamer had sailed. As another was expected 
about the end of the month, I went on to Galle to await 
her arrival; but owing to detentions it was not till the end 
of December that she reached Ceylon. During my stay 
at Galle I enjoyed the hospitalities of your friend Captain 
Champion, and with him made several short Botanical excur- 
sions in the neighbourhood. I could not, however, expose 
myself much, for I had several returns of fever in theshape — — 
of ague. The Botany of the south end of the island, as I 
learned from these short rambles, is very rich, and I hope 
ere long to be able to spend a month or two there with de 
proper appliances for making large collections, both for our 2 
own establishment and the Royal Gardens at Kew. 
At Madras I was again fortunate in meeting with kind 
friends in the son and nephew of my preceptor in Chemistry» 
Professor 'Thomson of Glasgow. It was at the coldest season 
of the year I arrived there, and my health was much bene- 
 fited by the change. There is something far more oriental 
