276 
Originally his only European botanical correspondent was 
r. Harvey, but after the death of the latter he commenced to 
correspond (in 1867) with Kew and continued this correspondence 
during the whole of his botanical career. His first visit to the 
Royal Botanic Gardens was made in the summer of 1876, when he 
brought a large collection of Cape plants for comparison with the 
Kew material. He gave duplicates of almost all he brought to 
Kew. These duplicates are now practically all that remain of 
that collection, for on his return to Cape Town in the “ Windsor 
Castle” the ship was wrecked in Table Bay and he lost all his 
specimens, and the fruits of his visit were wasted. This was a 
great disappointment to him, but it did not damp his enthusiasm. 
The above was not the only accident that befell him, for on one 
occasion, during his absence from home, his entire herbarium ran 
the risk of being destroyed by fire, but owing to the devotion of his 
wife his herbarium and library were saved from the flames. 
Dr. Bolus did a large amount of botanical work, principally on 
the Heaths and Orchids of the Cape. He elaborated the Heaths, 
with the help of his friend Dr. Guthrie, for the fourth volume of 
the Flora Capensis. This was a very difficult task, as the species 
number nearly 5,000 and many of them have been hybridised in 
gardens and a great many of the older descriptions are very 
incomplete. The death of his friend Dr. Guthrie, while collabo- 
rating in this work, was very keenly felt by Dr. Bolus. ~ 
About the year 1878 he commenced work on the Cape Orchids 
as a special study and for these he rapidly developed agreat and 
lasting interest. At the commencement he found great difficulty in 
their determination, so with a view to assisting himself and others, 
when he again visited Kew in 1881, he prepared a list of South 
African Orchids with references which was published in* Journ. 
Linn. Soc. in 1882, vol. 19, p. 335. Of the Orchids found in the 
vicinity of Cape Town he soon commenced to make drawings from 
his death. He has left figures and descriptions of 75 more species, 
which it is to be hoped will be published before long. 
In 1884 Dr. Bolus and Professor MacOwan commenced to issue 
their “ Herbarium Normale Austro-Africanum,” of which the 
advance sets were sent to Kew for correct determination before 
being issued to other herbaria, this practice being discontinued after 
the issue of the first 1000 numbers. About 1893, owing to some 
difference of opinion MacOwan continued the issue, unaided, under 
the title of Herbarium Austro-Africanum. These valuable sets 
gar presented free to the six principal European and American 
er 
In 1870 the Surveyor General of the Cape published an excellent 
ae of oad : olony - Some years after Dr. Bolus published 
an edition of this dividing out the country into botanical districts. 
