of Linnæus's Flora Zeylanica, and published in the Linnean Society's Journal (vol. xxiv.) a list of the plants therein contained, with the modern equivalents of the Linnæan names. The short preface to this is an excellent example of Trimeu's work, giving as it does a history of the herbarium, and general notes upon its contents.
These of course were but preliminaries to what was to have been the great work of his life—which, alas! he was not destined to finish. In 1893 appeared the first volume of the Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon—a work which, as I said when reviewing it in these pages,[1] occupies towards colonial floras a position similar to that which the Flora of Middlesex holds with regard to that of this country. To that review readers must refer for an account of the work. Had the author been spared, it was his intention, as soon as this large undertaking was completed, to compile from it a hand- book of Ceylon plants, analogous to Babington's Manual.
But it will cause no surprise to those who saw him when he was home last year that Trimen was unable to complete his enterprise. He had for years suffered from deafness, and this had become total, so that he was only able to carry on conversation with the aid of a pencil and paper. One leg was then entirely paralyzed, and although in spite of these and other troubles he maintained his old cheerfulness of demeanour, it was very painful to his old friends to see the state to which he had been reduced. We had hoped that he would not go back to Ceylon, but there were reasons — among them that anxiety to complete his Flora which, as we shall see, was with him literally to the last — which induced him to do so ; and I think no one expected he would ever return to England.
I am indebted to his elder brother, Mr. Roland Trimen, a distinguished entomologist, for the following account of the closing scene of Trimen's earthly carter:—
"After the attack in August last, which deprived him of all power in his left leg, my brother seemed to rally somewhat, though confined almost entirely to his room, being only taken out into the Gardens at his own request two or three times. On Wednesday morning, October 14th, he was suddenly seized with a feeling of chilliness and violent shakings of the hands and arms, his voice being at the same time somewhat afi"ected. This he himself did not regard seriously, but Mr. Freeman at once went to Kaudy to summon the doctor. He lay helpless all the day, and had to be fed with what little nourishment he was able to take. In the later half of the night he slept well , and on Thursday morning his first words were that he felt rather better, and must get up and do a little work at the * Flora.' This he actually did in the afternoon, and with great effort made a few notes, which. Freeman writes, are scarcely decipherable. This pathetic endeavour still to work on seems to have been the last flicker of his strength ; for during the sleepless night of Thursday, 15th, his attempts to speak were almost inaudible, and on Friday he rapidly passed into a state of coma, though sometimes looking up
- ↑ Journ. Bot. 1893, 375.
