† We have been asked whether this was the celebrated Henry Nicholas Ridley, who is credited with founding the Para Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantation industry in Malaya, but he did not become Director of Straits Settlements Gardens until the late 1880s. We had the memorable privilege of meeting him at Kew in England in the early 1950s, when he was approaching the century which he subsequently surpassed.—Ed.