David Prain

“ After his return to India he founded in 1878 at Dehra Dun a school for native foresters. During 1881-3 he inaugurated a sound system of forest management in Madras. On 24 April 1883 he retired from Indian service, with a special honorarium and valedictory notice. As administrator and as professional forester he had proved himself equally eminent.
Settling in Bonn, Brandis, who inherited his mother's social interests, instituted a workmen's club. ”

“ His efficiency in these positions led the duke of Argyll, secretary of state for India, to promote him in March 1871 to the post of superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, and of cinchona cultivation in Bengal. The Calcutta garden had been seriously damaged by two great cyclones in 1864 and 1867, but King completely renovated it, formed an adequate herbarium collection to replace that dispersed by the East India Company in 1828, and organised a botanical survey of India, of which in 1891 he became the first director. ”

“ As manager of the cinchona department King substituted quinine-yielding cinchonas for the poorer kinds previously grown, inaugurated in 1887 an economic method of separating quinine, and established in 1893 a method of distributing the drug on self-supporting lines at a low price. Both the governments of Bengal and of India recognised King's administrative capacity. On their behalf he acted as a visitor of the Bengal Engineering College, as a manager of the Calcutta Zoological Gardens, and as a trustee of the Indian Museum. ”