10 
ture, a tree which extends northward and westward to the Holy 
Land, and which I was the first to point out as a native of 
Ceylon), Carissa spinarum, Gmelina Asiatica, Pleurostyha 
Wightii, Eugenia bracteata, Elaodendron Roxburgh, Ochna 
squarrosa, Cassia Fistula, Cassia Rowburghii, and Memecylon 
finctoria. These are chiefly shrubs and small trees. The 
large trees, mostly of no great size, are two or three species 
of Terminalia, Bassia longifolia, the Margosa (Azadirachta 
Indica), the Satin-wood (Chloroxylon Swietenia), the Ceylon Oak 
(Schleicheria trijuga), the Tamarind (Zamarindus Indica), and the 
Palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis), which is particularly abundant 
on the peninsula of Jaffna.* The mass of the herbaceous vege- 
tation belongs to the natural orders Scrophularinee, Leguminose, 
Rubiaceae, and Composite. 
Proceeding southwards through this flat country, a consi- 
derable difference in the general appearance of the vegetation is 
observed, arising, no doubt, from the greater amount of rain 
which falls durmg the course of the year. ‘The trees are not 
only larger, but their foliage is heavier and of a darker hue ; and 
the numerous Acacias, which give so striking a feature to the 
north, almost disappear. Between Colombo and Galle, shrubs 
belonging to the natural order Huphorbiacee are very numerous, 
both im species and individuals, as well as a variety of Radiacee, 
of which the beautiful Zzora coccinea is not the least common. 
It is only in this range that the Pitcher-plant (Wepenthes distilla- 
toria), which is not, however, peculiar to Ceylon, is met with, 
growing in moist places and supporting itself among the bushes, 
About Galle, and from thence inland, to the base of Adam’s Peak, 
one of the most common shrubs is that which has been named, 
in honour of. the great Humboldt—Hwumboldtia laurifolia; and 
on the low hills near Galle, a few trees are met with, which, 
farther north, do not exist under one thousand feet of elevation, 
but this is easily accounted for by the greater atmospheric 
moisture of that district. One of these trees is a new and re- 
markable species of Durian (Durio Ceylanicus, Mihi.) 1 is in 
this district that the greater number of the Sugar plantations of 
Ceylon exist. 
* Since the above was written, 1 have made a most important addition 
to the trees of this region, and, indeed, to the Flora of the Island, in the 
far-famed Upas tree of Java and the Moluccas (Antiaris toxicaria), having dis- 
covered some fine large trees of it a few miles to the eastward of Kornegalle, 
early in August of the present year (1847). This discovery proves how little 
Sar gal of the vegetable productions % Ceylon had been attended 
