4 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XV. 



(11) "Interim Report on the Operations of the Archaeological 

 Survey at Sigiriya (Second Season), 1896," by H. C. P. 

 Bell, C.C.S., Archseological Commissioner. 



Members. 



During the past year ten new Members were elected, viz., C. Muttiah ; 

 Dr. J. S. Johnpulle ; Coomaraswamy Srikanta ; C. Namasivagam ; 

 D. J. Arsecularatne ; L. Walker, M.A. ; G. W.. Bibile ; E. S. D. 

 Tillekeratne ; J. E. D. Silva ; and G. C. Trask. 



Five Members resigned, viz., G. Grenier ; C. 0. Mackwood ; H. 

 Nevill, C.C.S.; Hon.F.R. Saunders, C.M.G., C.C.S.; and A. Thomson. 



The following names of Members were removed from the roll for 

 not comforming to No. 30 of the Society's Rules, viz.: — J. D. Casinader, 

 F. W. de Silva, W. H. Dias, N. A. W. Jayawardena, N. Mendis, A. H. 

 Monarasinha, R. O. S. Morgan, and S. Visuvalingapillai. 



The Hon. L„ F. Lee has rejoined the Society as a Life Member. 



Mr. A. Haly, the Director of the Colombo Museum, was elected an 

 Honorary Member in recognition of services rendered by him, and in 

 virtue of his official position as Director of the Colombo Museum. 



By the death of Dr. H. Trimen the Society has lost one of its most 

 distinguished Members. Dr. Trimen was born in London in 1843 and 

 educated at King's College. He studied medicine, and in 1865 gradu- 

 ated M.B., but he never practised his profession. In 1867 he was 

 appointed Lecturer on Botany at St. Mary's Hospital, and in 1869 

 entered the Botanical Department of the British Museum as a Senior 

 Assistant. He remained in the Museum till 1879, when he accepted 

 the post of Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon. His first 

 published work appeared in the Phytologist in 1862. In 1869, con- 

 jointly with Mr. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, the present Director of the Kew 

 Gardens, he brought out a work on the " Flora of Middlesex," which 

 still holds a position in the first rank among county " Floras." In 

 1866 Dr. Trimen discovered Wolffa arrhiza at Staines, the first locality 

 recorded for it in England. In 1870 he joined Dr. B. Seeman in 

 editing the Journal of Botany, and was sole editor from 1872 to 1879. 

 In 1880 he associated himself with Professor Bently in the publication 

 of an illustrated work in four volumes on " Medicinal Plants." Dr. 

 Trimen 's great work is his " Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon," three 

 volumes of which have been published, while the fourth and last has 

 been left unfinished. To the Encyclopaedia Britannica he contributed 

 a Paper on Grasses. Dr. Trimen was a Fellow of the LinnEean 

 Society, and in 1883 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He 

 joined this Society in 1880, and was for several years a Member of 

 Council. He always took an active interest in the Society's affairs and 

 contributed the following valuable Papers to its Journal : — 



(i.) "A Systematic Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns 

 Indigenous to, or growing wild in, Ceylon, with the Verna- 

 cular names and with reference to Thwaites' Enumeraiio ;" 

 published in Journal, Vol. IX., No. 30, 1885. 



(ii.) " Remarks on the Composition, Geographical Affinities, and 

 Origin of the Ceylon Flora ;" published in Journal, Vol. IX 

 No. 31, 1885. 



(iii.) " Note on the Botany of Riti-gala ;" published in Journal, 

 Vol. XI., No. 31, 1889. 



