Asiatic birds" read to the Zoological Society in 1873. This was his last major ornithological contribution, as his interest moved on to insects and, increasingly, to plants. It was this visit to the Himalaya that sparked his interest in Lepidoptera; his Sikkim expedition alone yielded nearly 530 records of butterflies. Elwes' visit to Turkey in 1874 was somewhat fortuitous as it replaced a trip to Cyprus at short notice. It is evident that on this journey Elwes' interest was focused on plants, and he collected numerous species of bulbs. In early April, whilst in the mountains near Smyrna (modern Izmir), he came across "the fine large snowdrop which now bears my name" (Galanthus elwesii). Before leaving Turkey he arranged for bulbs to be collected later; the first of the many millions exported ever since. In 1880 he visited India, accompanied by Frederick Du Cane Godman and the two visited Allan Octavian Hume before proceeding to Sikkim. He also made collection trips to the United Provinces, the Punjab, the Central Provinces, Bengal, South Canara and Travancore. Along with T. Edwards, Elwes wrote a monograph on the Oriental Hesperiidae. He also made a trip to the Altai region in 1898. His posthumously published Memoirs (1930) includes a chapter describing his visit to Nepal in 1914, at a time when Europeans were seldom admitted. He also mentions an unnamed companion, now known to be the English naturalist Aubyn Trevor-Battye, who took some of the photographs used to illustrate this chapter. Elwes was famous for his breeding of Nerine and Eremurus. Horticulturalist and garden writer Edward Augustus Bowles noted that he was specially interested in Arisaema, Crinum, Crocus, Fritillaria and Iris, as well as Kniphofia, Paeonia and Yucca. Bowles' memoir in Elwes' posthumous biography offers most information about the Colesbourne garden, but even this is scanty. In 1902 Elwes presented his collection of 25,000 moths and butterflies to the Natural History Museum, London. In 1920 James John Joicey acquired the "extensive collection of Lepidoptera, (nearly 11370 specimens) with the exception of the Indo-Australian Moths and types of the Palaearctic species, formed by H. J. Elwes". (Much of Joicey's collection was also later donated to the Natural History Museum.) Monograph of the Genus Lilium Elwes' horticultural interests largely concentrated on bulbs, and he was said to have the finest collection in private hands. In 1880, he published the magnificent folio Monograph of the Genus Lilium,