316 BOTANICAL INFORMATION 



escaped, the disease known to medical men under the name of " Bar- 

 biers," and which is often so fatal in Ceylon, made its appearance in 

 the island. M. Bojer was seized by it, and gradually sank under the 

 attacks of this slow paralysis, and expired at noon, on Wednesday, the 

 4th of June, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, retaining his complete 

 consciousness until a few minutes before his death. M. Bojer was a 

 member of many learned societies in England, France, aud Germany; 

 and in private life was highly esteemed for the simplicity of his man- 

 ners, the readiness with which he put himself at the head of any inquiry 

 which could be useful to the colony he had adopted as his home, aud 

 for the pleasure he seemed to feel in being able to afford information 

 to every one, from the vast stores of his accumulated knowledge. His 

 friend and fellow-labourer, M. Louis Bouton, pronounced a touching 

 oration at his grave, which was surrounded by a numerous and sorrow- 

 ing concourse, who had come to pay the last tribute of respect to a 

 truly worthy man, and who deeply felt the great loss the Colony had 

 sustained. M. Louis Bouton justly observed, *' Pleine et entiere justice 

 peut-etre n'a pas ete rendue de son vivant a cette haute et puissante 

 capacite, a ce savoir profond, qui eut pu briller d'un eclat si vif a Lou- 

 dres, a Paris, a Vienne, a Berlin." 



Fortunately for Mauritius M. Louis Bouton remains, to continue the 

 labours of his scientific and departed friend. He is indeed one of the 

 few men of science in the Colony ; one who has laboured in its interests 

 with so much zeal and such disinterestedness for so many years. Mau- 

 ritius owes the Secretary of the Natural History Society a debt of gra- 

 titude which it should be happy in having had at length the opportunity 

 of repaying in some slight degree, by conferring spontaneously upon 

 him the appointments so worthily filled by M. Bojer. Trifling though 

 the salary may be which is attached to them, no other person should 

 be placed in that scientific position but M. Bouton, for he was one of 

 its most energetic originators, for many years the right-hand of M. 

 Bojer; and in the opinion of the writer of this notice, who knows well 

 the scientific workings of the Colony, he is the only man capable of 

 doing justice either to the Museum or to the Professorship of Natural 

 History. A first-rate botanist, with a mind richly stored with all the 

 scientific knowledge of the age, a Creole of the Colony, speaking the 

 English and French languages equally well ; in constant communication 

 with the scientific men of Europe; he at least, who has kept up the 



