A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. - 393 



du Bus de Gisignies. The former Lad neglected uotbing to stimulate 

 the colony, but iu doing- this, grand seigneur that be was, he had no 

 thought of cost. So Du Bus was sent out as commissioner-general, 

 with an order to diminish the expenses, and to re-establish the balance 

 of the colonial budget. He executed the orders received, and the ex- 

 penses were immediately reduced, but how many useful institutions 

 were nearly or quite suppressed ! The botanic garden of Buitenzorg 

 was the first victim of the new measures. It was nearly wiped out. 

 In August, 1826, the posts of director and draftsman were abolished and 

 but one European gardener was left. By a decree of the following year 

 the special appropriation for the garden was discontinued, and it was 

 decided that thereafter the "Botanic Garden of the State" should be 

 kept up by a part of the sum allowed to the gorernors-general for the 

 maintenance of their Park of Buitenzorg. 



Happily there are providential interventions, thanks to which, strug- 

 gling institutions resist the most murderous attacks. Such an inter- 

 vention occurs when there arises a firm and persevering man who is able 

 to demonstrate for yet another time, that will triumphs over the most 

 vigorous decrees due to the necessities of the moment, and destined to 

 disappear with the circumstances which brought them forth. Such a 

 man arose and the intervention was effected. General Count van den 

 Bosch, successor to the Viscount Bus de (Jiisignies, who landed at Ba- 

 tavia in January, 1830, brought with him from Holland an assistant 

 gardener, a young man who had occupied an inferior position in a coun- 

 try house near The Hague. Toward the end of the year the only chief 

 gardener remaining at the garden fell sick, set out lor Europe, and died 

 on the voyage. The assistant gardener of the governor general was 

 selected to replace him. His name was J. E. Teysmann. Half a ceu- 

 turs later this simple gardener, who was given no other instruction 

 than that of the primary ischools, received a testimonial as brilliant as 

 it was rare of the esteem he had won iu the scientific world. 



Besides diplomas of honor, medals struck with his efligy, felicitations 

 from all parts of the world, there was given him an album, iu which 

 more than a hundred botanists, together with Darwin and De Candolle, 

 offered him their greetings, and this album had iuscribed upon it, on a 

 plate of gold, the following: 



" Geleherrimo inde/essoque,J.-E. Teysmann cum dimidium per sceculum 

 Archipelagi indici thesaurum botaniciim exploravit, mirantes coVegce.'''' 



To have attained this eminence a man must have possessed extraor- 

 dinary qualities, and Teysmann certainly had them. A man of strong 

 character in every respect, he to the end of his life united with great 

 energy and an active intelligence the ardent desire to seize any occa- 

 sion for self-instruction, for extending his knowledge of his specialt^^, 

 and particularly for enlarging his views. 



From 1830 to 1837, nothing is heard of either the Garden of Buiten- 

 zorg or of the chief gardener. The botanic garden existed during that 



