1849.] Linnean Society. 43 



figures and descriptions of many of the novelties of that gentleman's 

 collection, and he also contributed several other descriptions of his 

 plants for Hooker's ' Icones Plantarum.' He became a Fellow^ of 

 the Linnean Society in 1842 ; and published in the 19th volume of 

 our 'Transactions' a paper "on Peltophyllum, a genus allied to 

 Triuris." 



In September 1843, at the recommendation of his friend Sir Wm. 

 Hooker, he received from Government the appointment of Super- 

 intendent of the Botanic Garden of Ceylon. The first ol^ject of his 

 ambition in entering upon the duties of this appointment was the 

 formation of a complete Flora of Ceylon, to which he constantly 

 devoted his time and energies. In order to compare the relations 

 of the botany of Ceylon with that of the Southern Peninsula of 

 India, he made an excursion to Madras in the beginning of 1845, 

 where he had the opportunity of consulting 'the rich herbarium of 

 Dr. Wight, in company with whom he herborized extensively in the 

 Neilgherry Mountains, where he formed a very interesting collection. 

 After his return to Ceylon he made several journeys into the interior, 

 and to many distant parts of the island, adding thus constantly and 

 extensively to his collections. During five years he made great 

 progress in the accumulation of materials towards his projected Flora, 

 which he expected to complete for publication in 1851. In allusion 

 to this great object of his ambition he wrote in 1844 : " I trust to be 

 able to publish, in the course of a few years, a Flora of the island 

 worthy of the richness and beauty of its vegetation and of the en- 

 couragement afforded me by the home and local Governments. This, 

 however, as you are well able to judge, will be a work of no little 

 labour, as it must contain descriptions of from 4000 to 5000 species, 

 being considerably more than half of the plants defined bj' Linnaeus 

 in the last edition of his ' Species Plantarum.' " 



He returned about the middle of last year from one of his long 

 excursions made in company with Sir Emerson Tennent to Jaffna, 

 Trincomalee, and the eastern districts of the island : subsequently he 

 was constantly occupied in examining and registering the characters 

 of the plants of the large collection made during that journey, and 

 frequently complained of pain in the head, which he attributed to 

 too close application to these sedentary pursuits. He therefore 

 gladly availed himself of an invitation from Lord Torrington, 

 Governor of the island, to join him at Newera EUia, the famed 

 Sanitarium of Ceylon, to which place he repaired on the 10th of 

 March last. He arrived there in excellent spirits, at three in the 

 afternoon, and after lunching with the Governor and his family re- 



