44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



With his arrival in Ceylon commenced a new stage in Mr. 

 Thwaites's scientific life. He at once turned his attention from 

 the lower organisms to the varied and beautiful phanerogamic flora 

 of the island. At that time the duties of the Superintendent 

 were almost wholly of a scientific character, and he was undis- 

 turbed by other claims on his time. For the first ten years of 

 his incumbency Tbwaites was able to devote himself exclusively 

 to the investigation of the flora of Ceylon. His predecessor, 

 Dr. Gardner, was an indefatigable traveller, and had made large 

 collections, both in South America and India as well as Ceylon ; 

 and his sudden death had left every thing in confusion. The 

 first work of Thwaitcs was to separate the Ceylon j^lants from 

 the others; for all were mixed together. Gardner's collections 

 were to be sent home and sold on behalf of the family by auc- 

 tion in London, find little was retained at Peradeuiya. After 

 this work was finished, the sorting, arrangin<2:, and naminif of 

 the stores, accumulated and continually being brouglit in from 

 the jungles and mountains, was proceeded with, and Thwaites 

 made numerous excursions collecting. During this period a 

 number of interesting novelties were detected, principally in the 

 districts of Ambagamua, the neighbourhood of Eatnapura, the 

 Singhe Eajah Forest, and other parts of the wet south-west of 

 the island. Many of these were described by Tiuvaites in a 

 series of papers published in Hooker's ' Journal of Botany ' 

 from the year 1852 to 185G, wherein some 25 genera new to 

 science were defined and illustrated, most of them peculiar to 

 Ceylon, These papers are characterized by the terse accuracy 

 noticeable in all the writings of their author. At the same 

 time Thwaites worked indefatigably at forming a numbered 

 series of Ceylon plants from the stores of unarranged speci- 

 mens in the herbarium and those collected under his own direc- 

 tion. Numerous sets of these series were made up and widely 

 distributed among the principal herbaria and museums in Europe 

 in exchange for other dried plants, or for botanical books ; and 

 in the course of a few years Ceylon plants lor the first time 

 began to be generally well represented in collections. 



In 1857 the title of Superintendent Avas altered to Director ; 

 and in the next year was commenced the publication of the 

 book by which Thwaites is mo.-t widely known, and up to 

 the present time is the only modern catalogue of the indige- 

 nous plants of Ceylon. This book, tlie ' Euumeratio Plantarum 

 Zeylania?,' was printed in London at the risk of a publisher 

 there, and received no assistance whatever from the Govern- 

 ment. This important work first reduced into order the chaotic 

 state of knowledge and the confusion in nomenclature of our 

 flora. In its preparation Thwaites was greatly assisted by Dr. 

 (now Sir) J. D. Hooker. The ' Euumeratio ' is, of course, 

 essentially a botanists' book, and is of use to them only; descrip- 



