| Activity | MD Edinburgh 1776. FLS 1799. Madras Medical Service, 1776-1780, becoming a full surgeon in 1780. Botanised with Johann Gerhard Koenig (1728-1785) in Madras. Superintendent of Samalkot Botanic Garden, 1781-1793. Botanised in his spare time and from October 1789 had two Indian artists drawing some of the plants he had collected. Appointed naturalist in the Madras presidency, 1790. From 1790 started sending his drawings and descriptions of plants to India House and Sir Joseph Banks, published as "Plants of the Coast of Coromandel". Superintendent of Calcutta Botanic Garden and Chief Botanist of East India Company, 1793-1813, enlarged its collections from 300 species in 1794 to about 3500 in 1813 and formed a valuable collection of over 2500 flower paintings executed mainly by Indian artists, two sets of which survived, one at the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, and the other at Kew Gardens. Was at Cape of Good Hope, 1798-1799 and 1814, and at St Helena, 1814. Left India for good in 1813. |