May 1861.] Biographical Memoir of Dr. Bottler. 7 



sidence in India, and had on more than one occasion to lay aside 

 his Missionary work, and to seek in relaxation and change of cir- 

 cumstances a restoration of his failing vigour. It was during an 

 absence of this description that he paid his first visit to Madras in 

 1793. He remained there however for only a few months ; and 

 after accompanying Mr. Gsericke to Vellore to dedicate a Chapel 

 lately erected there at the expense of Mr. Torriano, he returned to 

 Tranquebar. At the close of the same year we find him again in 

 ill health and paying a visit to the venerable Swartz at Tanjore, 

 and amusing himself with the plants in that missionary's gardens. 

 The following extract from a letter written while there apparently 

 to his fellow missionary Jsenecke, shows the direction in which his 

 mind constantly turned. 



" Mr. Swartz loves trees. He has in his garden shaddock, orange, 

 and lemon trees, some of these in full bearing: likewise the 

 moringa, the cotton, entire avenues of moringa, tamarind, 

 and teak trees, besides several others. Nor are flowers, and 

 flowering shrubs forgotten. There is the bignonia, the mi- 

 chelia, champaca, the guettarda, miminsops, plumina alba, gar- 

 denia florida, myrtles, roses, and several kinds of mycthanthis. 

 Besides these I found here the ixora alba, and as a great va- 

 riety, a small olive tree, and the ixora chinensis. A fine hedge 

 of the justicia picta, (called by the Moors " the smiling leaf,") is a 

 great ornament. To this large garden is attached a kitchen gar- 

 den, parted off from it by a line ; and which supplies the table al- 

 most all the year through. The garden contains but two species 

 of palm, the cocoa, and the areca palm ; the date-palm, is, how- 

 ever, very common round Tanjore. It has also vines." 



Two subsequent journeys afforded ample scope for his botanical 

 predilections, and added to his European reputation. In the Nova 

 Acta Acad. Nat. Curios, of Berlin, printed in 1803, are to be 

 found Bottler's Botanical Notes on the journey from Tranquebar to 

 Madras by Wandewash to Cuddalore and Tranquebar from 29 th 

 Dec. to 16th Jan. 1800, with remarks on the plants observed dur- 

 ing his stay at Madras in the Botanical Garden at Marmalong un- 

 der the charge of Mr. D. Berry." 



At the close of the year 1795, Bottler proceeded on a tour 

 through Ceylon in the capacity of Naturalist in Company with Mr. 



