History of Ceylon Botany. 381 



and, after having for some time aided Dr. Seemann with the 

 'Journal of Botany,' became its assistant editor in 1870, and on 

 Seemann's death, in the following year, succeeded him as editor. 

 From 1875 to 1880 he issued, in conjunction with the late Prof. 

 Robert Bentley, his second important work, 'Medicinal Plants,' 

 which appeared in forty-two parts, and contains coloured figures 

 of most of the species in the Pharmacopoeia. For some years 

 Trimen also acted as lecturer on botany at St. Mary's Hospital. 



The zeal with which, on his appointment as Director at Pera- 

 deniya in 1879, he took up Thwaites's work was seen in the 

 thorough rearrangement of the plants in the Gardens in scientific 

 order, in much work at economic botany, especially quinology, 

 recorded in his annual official reports, and in a diligent exploration 

 of the island for materials for the present work. He published 

 ' Hortus Zeylanicus : A . . . . List of the Plants .... in the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya,' in 1888, a 'Catalogue of the 

 Library ....,' in 1889, and a 'Hand-Guide to the .... 

 Gardens,' in 1890, of which the last-named reached a fourth edition 

 in 1894, whilst reference has also been made to his careful work 

 upon Hermann's herbarium whilst in England in 1886. The 

 climate of Ceylon, however, seems to have proved fatal to him. 

 He aged prematurely, became totally deaf, and was partially 

 paralysed; but, after being again in England during 1895, he 

 insisted on returning to Ceylon, hoping to finish the 'Hand-book,' 

 the publication of which had begun in 1893. Trimen died at 

 Kandy, October 16th, 1896, and was buried near his predecessor 

 in the Mahaiyawa Cemetery. His name was given by Dr. King, 

 of Calcutta, to the magnificent Sinhalese banyan, Fiats Trimeni. 

 The memoir by Mr. James Britten in the ' Journal of Botany ' for 

 1896 (pp. 489-494), from which most of the above is taken, is 

 accompanied by a portrait from a photograph, but his best 

 memorial in the history of botany in Ceylon is undoubtedly the 

 present work, though he did not live to complete it. 



G. S. Boulger. 



