In March, 1856, Dr. Royle made a final attempt to induce the East India Company to take efficient steps to procure supplies of chinchona plants and seeds from South America; and proposed to employ Dr. Jamieson, the able Professor of Botany in the University of Quito, for this purpose. The lamented death of that eminent botanist Dr. Royle, to whom India owes so much, again put an end to all discussion of the subject for some time; but in 1859 energetic measures were set on foot, which at length effected the desired object fully and completely. Dr. Royle is well known as the author of works on Himalayan botany, on the cotton cultivation and on the fibres of India, and of a 'Materia Medica' containing a valuable article on the chinchona genus, which he caused to be printed separately for circulation in India. For several years he took the warmest interest in the proposed measures for the introduction of chinchona-plants into India, and used every influence at his command to effect this most important object. But he was not destined to see the final achievement of a design which he seems to have had so much at heart. In 1859 my services were accepted to superintend the collection of chinchona plants and seeds in South America, and their introduction into India; and I was authorised by Lord Stanley, then Secretary of State for India, to make such arrangements as should best ensure the complete success of an enterprise, the results of which were expected to add materially to the resources of our Indian Empire. The urgent necessity of this measure had become more apparent since Dr. Royle's time. Then the Government of India expended 7000_l._ a year upon quinine; but in 1857 the expenditure had risen to 12,000_l._, and continued to increase during the following years.[116]