xxvi Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



to retire on April 11 without being able to qualify for the pension payable 

 after thirty years' service. In consideration of the importance of the work 

 he had in hand, his service was extended for two years, and on July 1, 1895, 

 he was further permitted to resign his chair at the Medical College so as to 

 leave more time for the floristic work on which he was engaged. In 1896 

 with the eighth part of the 'Materials,' King completed the Disciflorse, and 

 in 1897 he was granted a further extension to permit him to carry still 

 further his Malayan work and to complete a sumptuous monograph of the 

 ' Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya,' of great importance to horticulture, for 

 which he provided the text, while one of his Cinchona officers, Mr. B. 

 Pantling, prepared the illustrations. Towards the end of 1897 his health, 

 which since 1873 had been uniformly good, was completely undermined by a 

 severe attack of fever, and his medical advisers peremptorily ordered the 

 termination of his service. But before he left India on February 28, 1898, 

 after more than thirty-two years of devoted service to the people and the 

 Government, he had the satisfaction of seeing the issue of the orchid mono- 

 graph, and had carried his Malayan work to the middle of the Calyciflorae, at 

 the end of the tenth fasciculus. On reaching England, King, resumed at 

 Kew, his work on the Malayan flora. The state of his health, however, 

 prevented his making great progress during 1898, and in 1899, owing to his 

 consenting to serve as President of the botanical section of the British 

 Association at its meeting at Dover, he was able to accomplish less than he 

 had hoped. He had, moreover, under medical advice, to spend each winter 

 and spring on the Biviera, and soon realised that he might never finish the 

 task he had allotted himself. - He faced the contingency with characteristic 

 practicality. By arrangement with his friend, Mr. H. N. Kidley, Director of 

 the Singapore Botanic Garden, that botanist undertook the elaboration of the 

 Monocotyledonous families, while King worked out the remaining Dicoty- 

 ledons, and when, in 1902, with the issue of the thirteenth part, King had 

 finished the Calyciflorae, he was joined by his friend, Mr. J. S. Gamble, in the 

 elaboration of the Corollifloras. For three more years King took his full 

 share in the joint work, which now made rapid progress; after 1905 partial 

 loss of sight and progressive infirmity led to his enforced abandonment 

 of active participation in the task, and the only share he could take in the 

 preparation of the twenty-first part, whose issue coincided almost to a day 

 with his death and completed the Corolliflorse, was the examination of the 

 sheets as they passed through the Press. He had, however, the satisfaction 

 of seeing the issue in 1907 of the first portion, and the completion in 1908 

 of what remained of Mr. Bidley's contribution to the great undertaking 

 begun in 1889. 



King's reputation as a landscape gardener was well known ; it brought 

 him honorary association with various horticultural societies and was 

 recognised by the award of the Boyal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal 

 in 1901. The value of Iris services to humanity in connection with the 



