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temperate climes. ‘The under vegetation consists of numerous 
beautiful herbaceous and suffruticose Balsams (/ipatiens), a 
great variety of suffruticose Acanthacee (Nilu), lovely and deli- 
cate Ferns of all sizes, from those scarcely a few inches in 
height to tree ones which throw up their stems surmounted 
by large masses of verdant fronds to 21 elevation often of twenty 
feet, and rivalling in gracefulness the Palms of the low country. 
In this range the lovely Tree-Rhododendron, so common m 
more elevated tracts, first makes its appearance. ‘The Pattanas 
at this elevation are more spongy in their nature than those 
below: the grasses peculiar to them grow closer together, and 
are smaller and more wiry in their texture; while the scattered 
shrubs are principally species of Hedyotis, and Osbeckia, the 
latter producing beautiful large rose-coloured flowers. 
The two thousand feet which succeed to these include the most 
elevated portions of the island, and embrace chiefly the mountam- 
tops, and the vallies or plains which divide them. The vegetation 
of this region has a still more alpine aspect, and is that which 
is possessed of the greatest interest to the Botanist, from the 
great number of European forms mixed up with those whose 
range does not extend beyond the tropics. The tree that first 
claims our attention in this range is the Rhododendron, not 
only from its great beauty, but from its vast abundance ; espe- 
cially in the open plains, which during the months of June and 
July are clouded with red from the great profusion of its 
blossoms. I have met with two well-marked varieties, if they 
are not, indeed, distinct species, of this tree. One is principally 
seen in the plains, or in their wooded margins, and is easily 
recognized by the rusty-coloured under-side of its leaves. It 
is the variety common on the open plains of the Neilgherry 
range of mountains, in the penmsula of India. The other 
variety, so far as I am aware, is peculiar to Ceylon, and always 
found in the forest, and at a greater elevation than the other. 
It is distinguished by its greater size, and the silvery under- 
side of its leaves, which are besides narrow and rounded at 
the base, not broad and cordate. Several fine trees of this 
variety occur on the ascent of Pedrotalagalla from Nuwera-Ellia, 
and close to the temple on the summit of Adam’s Peak ; but the 
finest I have met with in my excursions among the mountains of 
the interior, were in crossing over Totapella, where there is a large 
forest of them, many being from 50 to 70 feet in height, and with 
stems more than three feet in diameter. In these forests are 
also to be met with some four or five species of Wichelia, the 
representatives of the Magnolias of North America, several arbo- 
