xl PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
is there called “burgher”’ parentage ; that is to say, descended 
from the early Dutch colonists, a race that of late years, under 
the liberal government of Ceylon, has produced many individuals 
of merit in the professions of law and medicine. His father was 
employed in the military medical department, and the son was 
thence afforded favourable opportunities of acquiring the rudiments 
of science. In these studies he was much encouraged by the late 
Henry Marshall, Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, and from 
whose precepts and example he derived the habits of study and 
arrangement by which he was distinguished. Early in life he visited 
England to prosecute the study of medicine and surgery, and 
having obtained his diploma, he was, in 1841, appointed Staff As- 
sistant Surgeon in Her Majesty’s Forces. Being stationed in this 
capacity at Gibraltar, he diligently collected and arranged the 
plants of that singular promontory. The results of these labours 
appeared in 1846 under the title of “ Flora Calpensis, or Contri- 
butions to the Botany and Topography of Gibraltar ;” a small 
and unpretending, but highly meritorious and useful abort 
Dr. Kelaart subsequently returned to Ceylon, and for several 
years busied himself with the Fauna of that magnificent island. 
He also published an extended catalogue of its productions, which 
forms a valuable addition to the knowledge of its natural history. 
His impaired health constrained him on two occasions to return 
to England, and on his last return to Ceylon in 1856, he was en- 
gaged by the late Governor Sir Henry Ward in observing and 
investigating the Natural History of the Pearl Oyster, the 
fishery of which is of considerable importance in the revenue of 
the island. Some of the results of this investigation have appeared 
in an ‘ Po BABB Report on the Natural History of the Pearl 
Oyster of Ceylon,’ published at Trincomalee in 1857. 
He had also previously published at Columbo, in 1852-4, a 
‘Prodromus Faune Zeylanice,’ of which he presented the first, ai 
the first part of the second volume, to our Library. 
Being subsequently recalled to England, he died suddenly of dis- 
ease of the heart, during the passage, on the 31st August, 1860, in 
his 42nd year. 
Frederick Perkins, Esq., F.G.S. § H.S., the head of the emi- 
nent firm of brewers in Southwark, died on the 10th of Octo- 
ber, 1860, in his 81st year, at Chipstead Place, Kent. He was 
elected a Fellow of the Society on the 13th of March, 1816. 
Francis Plomley, M.D., was a physician of considerable repute 
at Maidstone, where he died, after a long illness, on the 9th of 
