Sir George King. 



xxvii 



separation and especially the distribution of quinine brought him honorary 

 membership of the Pharmaceutical Society, the grade of Officier d'Instruction 

 publique, the gift of a ring of honour by the Czar Alexander III, and the 

 Companionship, in 1890, of the Order of the Indian Empire. His work as 

 a systematic botanist was also widely appreciated ; he was a corresponding 

 member of the Bavarian Academy, an honorary member of the Eoyal 

 Botanic Society of Belgium and of the Deutsch Botanische Gesellschaft, one 

 of the six honorary British Fellows of the Botanic Society of Edinburgh, and, 

 a distinction that gratified him more than any other, an honorary member, 

 after he left India, of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, with which he had been 

 connected since 1867. The University of Upsala presented him with 

 a medal in recognition of his botanical studies, and the Linnean Society, to 

 which he had been elected in 1870, awarded him its Linnean medal in 1901. 

 On January 1, 1898, he was, in recognition of his long and distinguished 

 service, created a K.C.I.E., and immediately after his retirement a number of 

 his personal friends united in obtaining a medallion portrait in bronze, which 

 was placed, with a similar portrait of his friend, Dr. Cunningham, who for 

 many years was Secretary to the Committee, in the Zoological Gardens 

 which King had designed. A replica of King's portrait was placed in the 

 Boyal Botanic Garden whose beauty he had restored. At San Bemo, where 

 he wintered yearly from 1898 till his death, another memorial, connected with 

 a public institution whose welfare he had much at heart, will bear lasting 

 witness to his quiet but effective devotion to the cause of practical 

 philanthropy. 



King married, in 1868, Jane Anne, daughter of Dr. G. J. Nicol ; during 

 his illness in 1897 she was with him in India. As he was slowly recovering, 

 Lady King's health gave way. On the homeward voyage she gradually 

 sank ; she died in London the day following their arrival in England. From 

 this blow King never fully recovered ; its effect became more and more 

 apparent as the solace of strenuous work was denied him. The heemorrhagic 

 tendency of early life reasserted itself, and led to the rupture of a retinal 

 vessel which deprived him of the use of an eye. The tendency steadily 

 increased, and the melancholy induced by the feeling that his days of 

 usefulness had ended was mercifully relieved by an apoplectic seizure to 

 which King succumbed at San Remo on February 12, 1909. His remains 

 were interred, as he had desired, where he died. 



King's wide knowledge, which extended to most branches of science and 

 embraced many aspects of art and literature, was accompanied by a natural 

 modesty and a personal charm that rendered intercourse with him extremely 

 pleasing, though literary or artistic friends rarely came to know of his 

 scientific tastes, and scientific acquaintances had still fewer opportunities of 

 appreciating his critical acumen. But these, and other friends outside either 

 category, fully understood his innate goodness and courtesy, his transparent 

 candour, his shrewd sense, and his keen but kindly wit. A wise counsellor 



