16 
a native of Madagascar, and two small kinds of Passion-flower 
(P. suberosa and glauca), both natives of the West Indies, 
are fast following. Ageratum conyzoides, everywhere prevalent 
and one of the great pests of the Coffee Planter, is of American 
origin, though now thoroughly naturalized in all tropical countries. 
The above, though only a rapid sketch of the more prominent 
features of the vegetation of the Island of Ceylon, is sufficient to 
shew the great interest and variety of the materials of which it 
is composed, and the relation which it holds to that of other 
parts of the globe. Much, however, still remains to be done, 
before a detailed exposition can be offered to the world. 
——— 
Botamcal extracts from Mr. Low's History of Borneo. 
The climate of Borneo is distinguished by constant moisture 
and moderate warmth, which keep up a perennial vegetation. 
The refreshing showers and continual bat gentle heat cause the 
plants and trees to grow during the whole year, the forests being 
decked with that perpetual verdure, which confers on the 
Bornean Islands, when viewed from the sea, an aspect of un- 
exampled beauty. Shrubs of Hibiscus and flowering-trees, 
belonging to the genus Barringtonia, overhang the margin of 
the ocean; while the far inland mountains are clothed to their — 
summits with dense and rich vegetation. 
Europeans never find the climate oppressively hot. The ther- 
mometer averages 70-72° Fahr., in the mornings and evenings, 
82-85° at the hottest part of the day; 92° and 93° is the 
maximum, and the mercury very rarely attains it. 
Though no part of the world boasts such luxuriance of vege- 
table life as these Isles of the East, their soil is by no means so 
invariably fertile as the appearance of the forests would lead a 
cultivator to expect. This remark principally applies to Suma- 
tra, where moisture seems to supply the main impulse to vege- 
tation. Java is highly fertile, and what I have seen of Borneo 
appears so too. The soil of Sarawak is a rich yellow loam, 
covered with a surface of six to twelve inches of very productive 
mould, formed by the decay of the forests. It is admirably 
suited to the growth of the Sugar-cane, which attains greater 
perfection at Borneo without the slightest culture, than it exhibits 
in Ceylon under the fostering care of Europeans. I have often 
seen Sugar-canes at Sarawak eighteen feet long, abounding in the 
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