4 Biographical Memoir of Dr. Rottler. [No. 11, new series 



" If Wisnarasy lias still some cash from me in hand, and you will 

 be pleased to send him for making a collection of shells, &c, &c, 

 it will give to Mr. John and to me great satisfaction." 



This letter contains the first mention that I have met with of 

 the name of Mrs. Bottler ; I believe he married her in this very 

 year ; and he probably paid a visit to Cochin for the purpose : 

 for she is said to have been a Dutch lady residing at that place, 

 and the widow of the Captain of a Dutch ship. Mrs. Rottler died 

 at Vepery of cancer in 1827, at the advanced age of seventy -four. 

 The marriage does not appear to have had any issue. 



In the year 1788 Rottler made an excursion to Ceylon ; pro- 

 bably, as had been the case with others of the Tranquebar Mis- 

 sionaries, from Baldssus, whose tree-church used to be shown to 

 strangers quite recently at Point Pedro, down to Dr. John, who 

 made the same journey in 1779, with the intention of paying a 

 tour of visits to the languishing Dutch Churches of the north of 

 the island, whose spiritual wants had come to be very inadequately 

 provided for. 



It was at about this period of Rottler's life* that he became 

 known in Germany, with some of his fellow-writers in the same 

 field, in connection with his botanical researches : several en- 

 quirers into the natural resources of India in different parts of 

 the country were in active Correspondence with each other, + lay- 

 ing the foundation of what has since been done in the direction, 

 and in some respects tolerably exhausting their subjects. Many 

 of these names have now become illustrious : they were Jones, Flem- 

 ing, Hunter, Anderson, Berry, John, Roxburgh, Heyne Klein, 

 Buchanan, Hamilton, Russell, Norton, Shuter, Govan, Finlayson, 

 and Rottler. Dr. Konig had already during his visits to different 

 parts of the Continent of India and to Siam and Ceylon given a 

 direction to their enquiries : and his name, together with four 

 others in the above " illustrious series," are found in the annals 



* For nearly all the infomation in this paper in connexion with Rot- 

 tler's Botanical pursuits, I am indebted to my friend Dr. Hugh Cleghorn, 

 at whose suggestion I undertook to prepare this memoir. 



f See Wight and Arnott's Prodromus, Preface p. xi. and Hookar and 



Thompson's Flora Tndica. Preface, p. 47. 



