xxiv Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



indulging in the work he personally preferred had not yet come. His duties 

 as a forest officer taught him how difficult and yet how essential the 

 recognition of species that are of economic importance may be ; his experience 

 then and afterwards, when engaged in the formation of a first-rate herbarium 

 collection, led him to realise how frequently competent field workers, whose 

 results in obtaining material for the study of herbaceous plants or shrubs may 

 leave nothing to be desired, are deterred by what are doubtless serious 

 physical difficulties from supplying specimens that adequately illustrate 

 arboreous types. His sense of the extreme importance, from the industrial 

 standpoint, of full accounts of the constituents of the Indian forests, led him 

 by precept and example constantly to strive to remedy this well-known 

 defect. With all this he fully realised the desirability of advancing our 

 knowledge of Indian cryptogams, more especialty in regard to their 

 connection with pathological problems, but he failed, for once, to convince 

 Government how desirable it was to add a competent cryptogamist to the 

 garden staff. He did what he could to remedy the defect by referring 

 material to experts in Europe, and here again his personal influence was 

 of incalculable benefit to India. A friend, Dr. Cunningham,* devoted 

 much of his scanty leisure to questions connected with vegetable pathology ; 

 another friend, Dr. Barclay,f was an ardent student of the life-histories of the 

 Uredineae. For many years these two workers dealt on King's behalf with 

 critical references relating to the field of study which King was precluded 

 from entering and their generous co-operation with him in the public interest 

 only ended with the departure from India of the one and the untimely 

 death of the other. Throughout his active career King kept himself abreast 

 of what was done in most branches of botanical activity, but intimate friends 

 alone were aware of the pain it gave him to observe the gradual drifting 

 apart of workers in different lines of research. What grieved him most was 

 the hostility, especially when' this was veiled, sometimes displayed by men 

 whose work connected with what they termed " scientific " botany he held in 

 high regard, towards " systematic " botany. This attitude on the part of 

 students of problems which naturally attracted himself, towards conscientious 

 workers in the field to which circumstance and a sense of duty confined him, 

 caused King deep distress. 



The fact that King's scientific attainments were on a level with his 

 administrative gifts, though unknown to the world at large, could not be 

 concealed from those with whom he corresponded on botanical subjects, and in 

 1884 his university conferred on him the degree of LL.D., while in 1887 he 

 was elected into the Eoyal Society. He had since 1874 in reality done much 

 critical work, but it was not until 1887, when the progress made with his 

 garden improvements and especially in connection with the manufacture of 



* D. D. Cunningham, C.I.E., F.R.S., Professor of Physiology, Calcutta, and Secretary 

 to the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India. 



t Arthur Barclay (1852 — 1891), Secretary to the Director-General, Indian Medical 

 Service. 



