THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST 
Dec.  I,  1896.J 
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 
to  do  so.  With  branch  establishments  upon  the 
plain  and  upon  the  mountain,  the  garden  of  Pera- 
deniya  has  before  it  a brilliant  future. 
Dr.  Ti’imen  has  not  merely  carried  oit  a most 
efficient  and  thorough  reorganisation  of  his  depart- 
ment, but  he  has  signalised  his  term  of  office  by 
the  production  of  three  volumes  accompanied  by  an 
atlas  of  plates  of  the  long-desired  Handbook  of  the 
Flora  of  Cei/lon.  (For  notices  of  these  volumes, 
reference  may  be  made  to  the  Few  Bulletin  for  1893, 
pp.  3-1  and  227,  and  1895,  p.  236.)  A final  volume 
alone  remains  to  complete  this  valuable  work.  It  is 
satisfactory  to  record  that  Dr.  Trimen  has  been 
“ given  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Legislative 
Council  a special  allowance  in  addition  to  his  pen- 
sion for  the  last  six  months  of  the  year  in  order 
to  complete  the  scientific  work  upon  which  he  is 
now  engaged.” 
Intelligence  has  reached  England  of  the  death, 
on  the  18th  inst.,  at  Peradeniya,  Ceylon  in  his  fifty- 
third  year,  of  Dr.  Henry  Trimen,  F.E.S.,  P.L.S., 
late  Director  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens,  Ceylon. 
The  deceased  gentleman  was  formerly  senior  assis- 
tant in  the  notanical  department  of  the  British 
Museum,  prior  to  which  he  had  acted  as  lecturer  on 
botany  at  St.  Itlary’s  Hospital  Medical  School.  He 
was  also  for  many  years  editor  of  i\\e  Journal  of  Botami. 
In  conjunction  with  Bentley  he  wrote  “Medicinal 
Plants,”  a work  much  valued  by  pharmacists  and 
he  was  one  of  the  authors  of  Trimen  and  Dyer’s 
“ Flora  of  Middlesex.”  Of  late  years  he  had  been 
engaged  in  writing  a “Handbrok  to  the  Flora  of 
Ceylon,”  three  volumes  of  which  have  already  been 
published. 
The  friends  of  Dr.  Trimen  who  saw  him  during 
his  last  visit  to  England— a twelvemonth  ago 
last  summer — would  not  be  altogether  unprepared  for 
a serious  turn  in  the  malady,  or  rather  maladies,  from 
which  he  suffered;  yet  the  news  of  his  death  on  the 
16th  inst.  came  as  a surprise,  even  to  those  best 
acquainted  with  his  condition.  For  several  years  he 
suffered  from  deafness,  which  at  length  became  ab- 
solute, and  then  gradual  paralysis  of  the  lower  limbs 
set  in.  This  terminated  not  long  since  in  utter  help- 
lessness so  far  as  his  legs  were  concerned,  and  func- 
tional complications  arising,  he  succumbed  sooner 
than  was  expected.  He  bore  his  afflictions  with  w on- 
derful fortitude,  and  even  cheerfulness  ; and  his  only 
desire  was  to  be  spared  to  complete  his  great  work, 
the  “ Handbook  to  the  Flora  of  Ceylon.”  But  this 
was  not  to  be.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  however,  that  a 
competent  botanist  will  be  found  to  complete  this 
important  and  admirably-planned  publication. 
Henry  Trimen  was  born  in  London  in  1843,  and 
educated  at  King’s  College.  In  1865  he  graduated 
M.B.,  but  he  never  practised  medicine.  His  favour- 
ite study  was  botany,  and  he  at  first  specially  de- 
voted himself  to  the  British  flora  and  the  sources 
of  vegetable  drugs.  In  1867  he  was  appointed  Lec- 
turer on  Botany  at  St.  Mary’s  Hospital  Medical 
School;  and  in  1869,  he  entered  the  Botanical  De- 
partment of  the  British  Museum  as  senior  assistant. 
In  the  meantime  he  had  published  a number  of  con- 
tributions to  British  botany,  chiefly  relating  to  the 
flora  of  Surrey,  of  Hampshire  and  especially  of 
Middlesex.  His  first  work  appeared  in  the  Phi/lo- 
logist  in  1862.  Soon  he  became  acquainted  with 
\V.  T.  Thiselton-Dyer,  the  present  Director  of  Kew 
Gardens,  and  the  result  was  their  admirable  “Flora 
of  Middlesex,”  published  in  1869.  This  work  still 
holds  a position  in  the  first  rank  among  county 
“Floras.”  In  1886,  Trimen  discovered  IVolfia  arrhiza 
at  Staines;  the  first  locality  recorded  for  it  in  Eng- 
land. It  was  in  that  year  that  vvriter  became  acquain- 
ted with  Trimen  and  his  associate,  and  made  various 
excursions  with  them  collecting  materials  for  their 
“Flora.”  In  1870,  Trimen  joined  Dr.  B.  Seemann  in 
editing  the  Journal  of  Bot<m:,',  and  on  the  death  of 
the  latter  he  assumed  the  full  responsibilities  of  edi- 
tor, which  he  continued  to  exercise  until  he  went  to 
41 1 
Ceylon,  Concurrently  he  was  conducting  his  investi- 
gations in  medical  botany,  and  he  associated  himself 
with  Robert  Bentley  in  the  publication  of  an  illus- 
trated work  on  “ Medicinal  Plants” — a work  of  much 
research,  comprising  four  volumes  containing  up- 
wards of  300  coloured  plates,  Passing  over  many 
minor  events,  we  come  to  the  period  when  he  was 
appointed  to  succeed  Dr.  Thwaites  in  the  important 
and  onerous  duties  of  Director  of  the  Botanic  Gar- 
dens of  Ceylon — duties  he  discharged  in  a manner 
satisfactory  to  the  home  authorities  and  the  colonists. 
His  annual  reports  are  models  of  what  such  reports 
should  be.  He  at  once  took  up  the  study  of  the 
native  flora,  and  was  soon  actively  engaged  in  the 
introduction  of  valuable  economic  plants  of  other 
countries  for  cultivation  in  Ceylon.  The  first  volume 
of  his  “Handbook”  appeared  in  1893;  the  second  in 
1894  ; and  the  third  in  1895  ; and  from  his  last  letters 
we  learn  that  he  was  still  working  with  a will,  in 
spite  of  his  afflictions. 
As  a botanist.  Trimen  was  a man  of  great  attain- 
ments. As  a friend,  he  was  sympathetic,  sincere,  and 
constant.  His  work  was  always  thoroughly  and  con- 
scientiously performed,  and  is  consequently  of  an 
enduring  natttre.  This  v/as  recognised  in  his  being 
elected  a F ellow  of  the  Royal  Society  in  1884 
-^Nature  W.  Botting  Hemslev, 
^ 
CHINAS’  TEA  TRADE. 
Eight  of  the  leading  British  tea  merchants  in 
northern  China  have  addressed  to  the  Shanghai 
Chamber  of  Commerce  the  following  interesting 
letter ; — 
“As  a Tariff  question  is  now  being  re-opened,  the 
occasion  seems, fitting  that  we,  the  undersigned,  buyers 
of  tea  in  North  China,  should  ask  your  particular 
attention  to  the  disastrous  condition  into  which  the 
Chinese  tea  trade  has  fallen  ; which  is,  in  our  opinion, 
largely  due  to  the  heavy  taxation  under  which  it 
has  laboured  for  many  years,  a taxation  far  in  excess 
of  the  Treaty  tariff  of  5 per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
“During  last  season,  1895-1896,  the  export  of 
black  tea  from  China  to  great  Britain  has  amounted 
to  only  37J  million  pounds,  as  against  117  millions 
in  season  1887-1888,  and  169  millions  in  seasons 
1880-1881,  a decrease  of  13 1|  million  pounds  in 
fifteen  years.  This  enormous  decrease  in  the  volume 
of  the  trade,  one  of  the  main  foundations  of  our 
commercial  existence  in  China,  has,  needless  to  say, 
been  attended  in  its  coiu'se  with  terrible  loss  and 
distress  to  a large  number  of  foreigners  and  to  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Chinese. 
“ The  taxation  consists  of  the  export  duty,  Haikuan 
Taels  per  picul,  and  the  likin  taxes  which  average 
about  Taels  2|  per  picul, — in  all,  say  Tls.  5 per  picul, 
which  was  the  average  cost  of  black  tea  in  North  China 
is  about  Tls.  20  per  picul  duty  paid,  means  a tax  of 
over  30  per  cent,  on  the  cost  of  tea  purchased  at 
the  treaty  Ports.  On  sound  common  tea,  which 
costs  about  Tls.  11  per  picul  duty  paid,  the  taxation 
thus  amounts  to  over  80  per  cent,  on  the  cost.  Now 
the  Treaties  of  Nanking  and  Tientsin  (1842  and 
1858)  fixed  the  duty  on  tea  at  Haikuan  Taels  at  2J 
per  picul,  which  was  to  represent  an  ad  valorem 
rate  of  5 per  cent.  At  the  present  time,  however, 
an  ad  valorem  rate  of  5 per  cent,  would  be  only 
about  I of  the  'Tael  per  picul  and  foreigners  were 
entitled  every  ten  years  to  have  the  Tariff  revised 
in  this  sense,  under  Article  27  of  the  Treaty  of 
Tientsin,  26th  June,  1858.  As  to  the  likin  exactions, 
which  go  to  make  up  the  Taels  5 per  picul, 
these  were  of  course  never  contemplated  by  the 
Treaties. 
“ It  is  only  natural  that  Chinese  tea  penalised  as 
it  is  by  this  crushing  taxation,  has  been  quite 
unable  to  compete  with  the  untaxed  produce  of  India 
and  Ceylon.  Not  only  in  England  but  also  in  the 
smaller  markets  of  Australia  and  America,  do  we 
see  the  working  of  this  inevitable  law. 
“ To  Australia,  China  will  ship  this  season  only 
about  7 million  pounds  of  Black  Tea,  as  against 
21  millions  in  1880  and  1881 ; there  the  untaxed 
