July 2, 1900.1 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
3 
such works as De Candolle's La Phi/tor/raphie, this 
Journal is frerjuently cited as the source whence in- 
formation regarding the Museum collections has been 
derived. Besides the work of editing, Dr. Trinien 
enriched the Journal with numerous communications 
dealing with British plants from various aspects, 
bibliographical and other matters, descriptions of new 
genera and species, reviews of books, and the like. 
His work throughout is characterized by extreme 
care. He did much to elucidate the British species 
of such critical genera as Poti/f/onum and Ilumrx', 
and in the latter genus he commemorated his friend 
Mr. Warren by naming in his honour a form sub- 
sequently identified wi'h R. KnaAi* He also con- 
tributed to the Linnean Society's Journal and to 
other periodioiU; fifty papers stand under his name 
iu the Royal Society's Catalogrie of Scientific Papers. 
In 1872-3 Trimen took a leading part in the pro- 
motion of certain reforms in the Linnean Society, 
of which body he had become a Fellow in 186G. The 
bringing about of these was attended by a period 
of excitement rare in the annals of a learned body. 
Some account of what took place may be found 
in the Journal for these years ; and the result was 
in every way beneficial, although in the eonrde of 
the proceedings necessary to secure reform, certain 
regrettable incidents occurred. Those who remember 
the lormal meetings of pre-reformation days will 
anree that the contrast between then and now is 
nothing short of startling. It is to Trimen that we 
owe the small but important regulation by which the 
dates of publication of each part of the Journal are 
printed on the back of the title to each volume. 
la 1875 began the publication of what was in some 
respects Trimen's most noteworthy work— Medicinal 
p/3ji(,5_ which he undertook in collaboration with 
Prof. Bentley. This was not concluded until 1880, 
the last part having been published in February of 
that year, after Trimen had left England for Pera- 
deniya. This important change in his career oc- 
curred in December, 1879, to the great regret of 
his colle-igues in the Museum. 
This seems a fitting place in which to pay a tribute 
to those personal characteristics which made Trimen 
popular among a large circle of friends. Bright and 
cheerful in manner, with a sufficient sense of hu- 
mour and a good acquaintance with general i if m s 
and literature, be was an extremely pleasant com- 
panion ; while as a Museum official he was a! .v ,13 s 
courteous and helpful to enquirers, and both ready 
and willing to impart the knowledge he possessed. 
" His kind-hearted and cheerful nature," writes his 
brother, " with his unflagging zeal and activity in 
the pursuit of his favourite science, won him many 
faithful friends and associates— especially when he 
held the post of Lecturer on Botany at St. Mary's 
Hospital, and led his class in the field no less ably 
and enthusiastically than he did in the lecture-room. I 
think that his life," he adds, " was, until quite lately, 
a very happy one. He was able to give himself 
unrestricted to the work he loved best, and in its 
practical application to the tropical gardens of which 
he was in charge for sixteen years was unquestion- 
ably most successful. He was free from family carea 
or pecuniary anxieties, and up till two years ago 
enjoyed unusually good health, while he had the 
happy gift of winning the affection and respect of 
all those with whom he had to do." 
Ou his arrival in Ceylon, Trimen threw himself 
with characteristic eneigy into the various branches 
of his work. This involved an entire rearrangement 
of the Gardens — a task the need and execution of 
which are well set forth by M. Treub, of Buitenzorg, 
a highly competent judge in such matters. The 
Garden, he says, was "for many years under the 
direction of Dr. Thwaites, a man of real merit, but 
who thought a botanic garden in a tropical country 
should be in some manner a reduced copy of the 
virgin forest. This system, more original than meri. 
torious, excludes any methodical arrangement of plants 
and necessarily restricts the number of specimens. 
Dr. Trimen, as soon as he arrived in Ceylon, realized 
the disadvantages of the plan of his predecessor. To 
distribute over an area of sixty hectares, without any 
order, a great number of plants, for the most part 
not labelled, was fatally to embarrass the scientific 
use of the rich collections that had been brought 
together. So Dr. Trimen did not hesitate to adopt 
a new arrangement of plants according to the natural 
system, and to label them as far as it was possible 
for him to do so. With branch eftablishmeuts upon 
the plain and upon the mountain, the garden of 
Peradeniya has before it a brilliant future."* 
His life in Ceylon was very pleasant, any feeling of 
isolation being greatly modified by the visits of other 
botanists, such as Dr. Marshall Ward and Mr. H. 
N. Ridley, or of other scientific men, such as Prof, 
Ernest Haeckel, who, in his Visit to Ceylon, speaki 
warmly of Trimen's genial hospitality and " valuable 
instruction " — " the seven days 1 spent in his delight- 
ful bungalow were indeed to me seven days of 
creation." In such company Trimen would take 
expeditiona into parts of the island hitherto un- 
explored by him, never failing to discover some in. 
teresting novelties. 
This is not the place in which to consider Trimen's 
services to economic botany; his annual reports 
show that he developed the resources of the Garden 
in every direction, and his contributions to quinology 
were important. But something must be said about 
his botanical work in Ceylon. As soon as he had 
settled down, he became conscious of the need of a 
flora of the island. In 1885 he issued a catalogoo 
of the plants, with the vernacular names and re- 
ferences to Thwaites's Enumevatio ; and in this Journal 
for the same year he published a series of notes on 
See Journ. Bat. 1896, 79. 
* Annual Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1889-90. 
p. 390. 
