History of Ceylon Botany. 379 



1879 to take his place, he in the following year retired on a well- 

 earned pension, and purchased the pretty bungalow named ' Fairie- 

 land,' above Kandy. While in Kandy, on his way to the seaside, 

 Thwaites died, September nth, 1882. He had been an F.L.S. 

 since 1854, and a C.M.G. from 1878. A portrait of him accom- 

 panies a brief memoir in the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' for 1874, 

 vol. i. p. 438. 



Among those who assisted Thwaites, we can only mention three 

 other names, those of Harmanis De Alwis, George Wall, and the 

 Rev. S. Owen Glenie. Harmanis de Alwis Seneviratne 

 joined the staff of the Ceylon Garden in 18 18 as a writer under 

 Moon (the second Superintendent) at the old Gardens in Slave 

 Island, Colombo, and at Kalutara, assisting him in the preparation 

 of the ' Catalogue of Ceylon Plants' (1824). Perceiving De Alwis's 

 aptitude for drawing, Moon had him taught at his own expense. 

 'In 182 1, the Gardens were moved to Peradeniya, and two years 

 after, in 1823, De Alwis was appointed draftsman, a post he con- 

 tinued to hold for thirty-eight years. He at once commenced, 

 under Moon's direction, the coloured drawings of Ceylon plants 

 which have now become so large and valuable a series. So well 

 did he do his work, that Governor Barnes, in 1831, conferred on. 

 him the native rank of Muhandiram.' When, in 1836, Wight visited 

 Ceylon, he was so interested in De Alwis's drawings, that, in 1839, 

 he had him for three months at Madras, to learn floral dissection 

 and draw some of the plates of the ' Icones Plantarum Indian 

 Orientalis.' ' When Gardner arrived as Superintendent of the 

 Gardens, he found already a good series of drawings, which, under 

 his auspices, rapidly increased in number and aceuracy, it being 

 Gardner's practice for the artist to accompany him in all his 

 botanical tours. Dr. Thwaites followed the same plan, and, in the 

 preface to his " Enumeratio," acknowledges De Alwis's " intelligent 

 and hearty co-operation" in the work. In 1854, an assistant drafts- 

 man was also at work in the person of one of the sons of De Alwis, 

 and, in this year, the rank of Mudaliyar was bestowed on him by 

 Governor Anderson. In 1861 he retired on full pension, which he 

 lived to enjoy for thirty-three years in the complete possession of his 

 memory and his senses, with the exception of failing eyesight. De 

 Alwis died at Peradeniya, June 10th, 1894, at a very advanced age. 

 His name is commemorated in a very curious and minute leafless 

 orchid, which he was the first to discover, and which was named 

 after him in 1859, by Dr. Lindley, Ttzniophyllum Alwisii. Dr. 

 Lindley also named another little orchid Alwisia tenuis* 



George Wall, F.Xi.S., born about 182 1, went to Ceylon 

 in 1846, where, as a leading merchant, planter, newspaper 

 editor, and member of the legislative Council, he occupied a pro- 

 minent position. He was an intimate friend of Thwaites, and took 



* H. Trimen, 'Journ. Bot.,' 1894, pp. 255-6, 



