﻿Botanic Gardens dates back so far as 1818, when he served as 

 a writer under Mr. 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 (published in 

 1824). Mr. Moon, observing his aptitude for drawing, had him (at 

 his expense) educated, and taught accurate draftsmanship. In 1821 

 the Gardens were moved to Peradeniya, and two years after, in 

 1823, Mr. De Alwis was appointed draftsman, a post he continued 

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

 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. In 1836 Dr. Wight visited Ceylon, and was 

 so interested in Mr. De Alwis's drawings that a few years after, in 

 1839, he had him at Madras for three months to be instructed in 

 the practice of dissecting flowers. Some of the plates in Icones 

 Plantarum India Orientalis were at this time drawn by Mr. De Alwis. 

 In 1843, when Gardner arrived as Superintendent of the Gardens, 

 he found already a good series of drawings ; but under his auspices 

 they rapidly increased in number and accuracy, it being Mr. Gard- 

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

 tours. Dr. Tbwaites, who succeeded in 1849, followed the same 

 plan, and in the preface to his Enumeratio Plantarum Z, >/ln>i„ . in 

 1804, acknowledges Mr. De Alwis's "intelligent and hearty co- 

 operation" in the work. In 1854 an assistant draftsman was also 

 at work in the person of one of the sons of Mr. 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 has lived 

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

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

 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, Taniophyllum Alwisii. Dr. 

 Lindley also named another little orchid Alwisia tenuis, but this 

 has proved to be the same as Eria articulata.—K. T. 



The Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information continues to justify its 

 title. The number for July contains articles on the artificial pro- 

 duction of citric acid, on the Flora of the Solomon Islands, by Mr. 

 Hemsley (with descriptions of new species), on methods for ex- 

 terminating locusts in the Caucasus, and on the preservation of books 

 in the tropics, with a reprint from the Standard of Sept. 16, 1893, 

 of a long paper on the importation of vegetables. 



We are glad to learn that the seventh and last volume of the 

 Flora of British India will contain a "general corrected index to 

 the whole." The indexes to the volumes hitherto issued of this 

 useful work have been by no means satisfactory, and a mere com- 

 bination of these would not meet the needs of the case, the faults 

 being of omission as well as of commission. We hope the name of 

 the genus will be repeated at the head of each column, as is done 

 in Mr. Jackson's great Index. 



