s--of setting the standard of time
throughout the whole of India. The Madras Civilian was Mr. William
Petrie, an extraordinarily versatile genius, who entered the service
as a young man and rose to be a member of the Government, yet managed
to find time for very serious astronomical pursuits in his house at
Nungambaukam. Going home to England on long furlough, Mr. Petrie
allowed the Madras Government to acquire his instruments; and in 1791,
when he came back to Madras, the Madras Observatory was built, with
Mr. Petrie as adviser.

Another enthusiastic scientist in Madras in the same period was Dr.
James Anderson, who, after many years of work in the Company's medical
service, settled down at Madras as 'Physician-General,' on a salary of
L2,500 a year, and devoted himself and a large part of his handsome
salary to botanical pursuits. He acquired in Nungambaukam more than a
hundred acres of land, which included what are now the grounds of the
houses that go by the names of Pycroft's Gardens and Tulloch's
Gardens; and for nearly a quarter of a century, until his death, Dr.
Anderson utilized his leisure in the creation and development of a
useful and ornamental botanical garden. He was most enthusiastic over
his hobby, and he was continually carrying out botanical and
agricultural experiments, of medical or commercial or industrial
value. His grounds were open to the public, and 'Dr. Anderson's
Botanical Gardens' became famous, and were a place of popular resort.
Dr. Anderson died at the age of seventy-two; and in St. George's
Cathedral his memory is graced with a fine statue that was carved by
the most eminent sculptor, Sir Francis Chantrey, and for which his
medical brethren in the Madras Service subscribed. How many years
after his death his gardens continued to exist it might be difficult
to say, but they must have suffered badly from the want of the ardent
botanist's enthusiastic care. But the botanic spirit that Dr. Anderson
had started remained alive in Madras; for in 1835, when, to the regret
of many, his gardens had been split up into building-sites for two
private residences, there was still a sufficient number of botanically
inclined people in the city to found the Agri-Horticultural Society of
Madras, a still-energetic body whose beautiful gardens at Teynampet
deserve to be more generally appreciated by the public than they are.

The Madras Literary Society was founded a good many years ago. Its
work now is th