and laying out footpaths and conservatories. A fireproof herbarium was also constructed based on plans from Kew. King also altered the garden design from one segregated linearly on the basis of taxonomy to one based on regions with combinations of species showing the natural plant associations. He began the journal, the Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta In 1873 King was also associated with the creation of the Calcutta Zoological Garden. He was also associated with setting up a botanical garden at Darjeeling. King had earlier suggested that a post for a quinologist be created and the appointee C.H. Wood found a way to extract alkaloids and this helped produce a popular Cinchona Febrifuge. Wood returned in 1879 but his setup was worked by J.A. Gammie. King replaced the quinologist, studying the methods of the Dutch and went on furlough to England in 1885 to study Wood's continued work back there. Returning to India, King worked on a system for the distribution of quinine through the postal department. The system was fully operational in 1893. Village post offices in Bengal were able to sell small packets for a pice, the smallest coinage. He also supervised the work of botanical artists and worked with Sir Joseph Hooker to help him prepare the Flora of British India. A major work was on the Annonaceae of British India. In 1891, he was appointed the first director of the Botanical Survey of India, an institution that linked the botanical officers in the different Presidencies. King also produced a work on the orchids of the eastern Himalayas, The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas (1898) in the Annals along with Robert Pantling (1857–1910) who was an assistant in the Mungpoo cinchona plantations working with James Alexander Gammie. King also wrote a series of articles Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1898 King was succeeded at the Calcutta Botanical Gardens by Sir David Prain (1857–1944). Personal life and last years King married Jane Anne Nicol (1845-1898) in 1868. Jane fell ill and died on the way back to England in 1898. The loss was a blow and in the following years King lost an eye due to a ruptured vessel and he increasing fell ill. He reflected on the history of botany in India at the 69th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement