2 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July 2, 1900. 
liking for natural history, and collected Epecimens of 
brother Eoland was devoted to the same pursuits, 
and well remembers how, when it became a matter 
of necessity to malce a clioice among the " omnium 
gatlierum" of organic objects amassed, it was solemnly 
decided that Henry should restrict himself to the 
Btudy of plants, while his senior was to devote his 
attention to insects. Holidays and half-holidays were 
almost always occupied by collecting excursions in 
the environs of London; and school vacations, with 
the annual visit of the family to the seaside, gave 
golden opportunities for field-work which were never 
neglected. While he was still at King's College 
School he had begun to form an herbarium, and fie- 
qnently visited the Botanical Department of the 
British IMuseum for the determination of his collect- 
ions. He was than a steady and careful worker, 
and a caretnl observer of all the conditions of 
plant-life. 
He began his medical studies at Kings's College 
in the autumn of 1860. The winter of 1864 he spent 
at Edinburgh University, where, besides attending 
to his medical studies, he acted as clinical assistant 
to Prof. Bennett. He joined the Edinburgh Botanical 
Society, and secured the friendship of Prof, Balfour 
and many of the younger botanists of Edinburgh. 
He graduated M.B, with honours at Loudon Uni- 
versity in 1865, and for a short time he acted as 
district medical officer in the Strand district during 
an epidemic of cholera. 
It was in 1864 that I made Dr. Trimen's personal 
acquaintance. The Society of Amateur Botanists, 
which had been established in 1862 and of which 
some account will be found in this Journal for 1861, 
p. 287, was then in the best period of its not very 
long existence, and Mr. Newbould took me to one 
of the meetings and introduced me to Mr. Trimen 
and to Mr. Dyer — two names which were then, like 
■ their possessors, intimately associated. To a lad of 
eighteen, strange to public meetings and shy of 
Btrangers, these young men of twenty one seemed 
superior beings — an impression intensified by a cer- 
tain loftiness of tone which, in Trimen's case, soon 
disappeared upon more intimate acquaintance. Tri- 
men and Dyer were the leading spirits of the Society, 
which, however, also numbered men who have dis- 
tinguished themselves in botanical work during later 
life (of whom Mr. W. G. Smith is a conspicuous 
example), as well as others whose attachment to'ootany 
was but temporary. 
At this period, and for many years after, Trimen 
look a prominent part in the work of the Botanical 
Exchange Club, and this brought him into frequen t 
commuuication with Mr. J. G. Baker, which developed 
into personal friendship when the latter came to 
town in 1866. Somewhat later than this he formed 
the acquaintance of the Hon. .T. Leicester Warren 
(afterwards Lord do Tabley), who, with Mr. New- 
bould and Mr. Dyer, were his chief botanical friends. 
■\Vitb the last of these ho projected in 1866— iu which 
year he added Wolljia arrliim to our British list — 
the i<'lora of 3Iiddle^ex, which, on its publication in 
IS69, was at once recognized as an epoch-making book in 
the history of British botany, and has formed a model 
for subsequent compilers of local floras. It is un- 
necessary to speak at length of a book so well known 
and so deservedly admired. T t has always been sup- 
posed that Dr. Trimen was responsible for the larger 
portion of the undertaking ; and the intei leaved copy 
of the Flora, which, on going to Ceylon, he left in 
the Department of Botany, is full of MS. notes which 
will interest future investigators of the plants 
of the county. 
Although he had completed his medical course with 
distinction, it was manifest that Trimen's vocation 
lay in the direction of botany. He was well ac- 
quainted with Mr. Bennett and with Mr, Carrnthers, 
the latter of whom had shown every encouragement 
to him and to Mr. Dyer at the beginning of their 
botanical career, and had thus contracted a warm 
personal fiiendsolp with them, which in Trimen's 
case was never broken. Mr. Dyer had also a desire 
for botanical work, and, as 1 have said elsewhere,* 
it was only after much deliberation that Trimen 
was chose;) to fill the post of Assistant iu the De- 
pxrtment of Botany in the Britisb Museam. It is 
curious to speculate on the turn that events might 
have taken had the choice bsen otherwise. In 1877 
Trimen became botanical lecturer to St. Mary's Hos- 
pital — a post which he retained for many years. 
Although it was not till 1870 that Trimen's name 
appeared on the little-page of this Journal in the 
capacity of a«slstint-editor, he had f^r some time 
had much to do in its management. During See- 
man's frequent absences from England, Mr. Carru- 
thers had acted as editor, although his name never 
appsared in that capacity ; bat from 1870 onwards 
Trimen was responsible in every way for the conduct 
of the Journal, although his name did not appear 
as editor until after Seemann's death in 1871. He 
at once reduced the price of the Journal and intro- 
duced many new feature', the result being an in- 
creased circulation and a much improved table of 
contents. The pecuniary loss entailed, however, was 
considerable, although towards the end of his editor- 
ship the Journal paid its way. The Journal has 
from the first been unofficially associated with the 
British Museum. Dr. Seemann found the Botanical 
Department a convenient place of reference, and sub- 
sequent editors have been members of the Museum 
staff, so that, although the Bluseum is in no way 
responsible for what may appear in its pages, it 
has furnished a convenient medium— more needed, 
perhaps, formerly than at present -for keeping the 
botanical world au courant with what is done in the 
National Herbarium. Dr. Trimen, as a loyal ser- 
vant of the Trustees, systematically recorded the 
progress of the collections, and the importance of the 
records thus published ia shown by the fact that in 
* Jourii. Bot, im, 183, 
