29 
Botanical Notes. 
The Flora of Ceylon, Especially as Affected by Climate, is the 
title of a very interesting paper read by Henry Trimen at the 
meeting of the British Association, September, 1886, and pub- 
lished since in the Journal of Botany for October and November. 
The reader will be impressed by the abundance and luxuriance 
of introduced plants even around the Buddhist temples, and will 
be astonished to learn that as early as 1520 South American and 
West Indian plants were introduced in the East Indies. In con- 
sidering the native flora, the island is divided into two large 
areas—Northeast, or dry, and Southwest, or moist. The former 
is rarely visited, the latter is well known. These are again sub- 
divided according to elevation. The cultivation of rice and other 
grain has caused the destruction of nearly all the lowland forests, 
and a stony, worthless region, covered with Lantana from the 
West Indies, and a small native bamboo replace them. Ina few 
cases the native trees remain, and a vivid account is given of the 
plants in these ‘‘hot, steamy forests.” An interesting and 
restricted flora is here found, remarkably like the Malayan; 
while the hill-flora is generically similar and specifically distinct 
from that of the mountains of South India. One of the remark- 
able features of the Ceylon flora is the large number of species 
which are peculiar to the island, nearly 30 per cent. of them 
being found nowhere else in the world, and they seem to be con- 
centrated in the wet Southwest région. The clearing of the hill 
country for coffee estates has left a belt between the lowlands 
and the montane zone, in which nearly all trace of the native 
vegetation is lost, its place being taken by ‘fan army of cosmo- 
politan exotic weeds.” This was the great region for epiphytic 
Orchids, and the few remaining strips of forest show a great 
variety of species. The montane zone is forest-clad to the sum- 
mit, and the trees are nearly all evergreen, with thick and 
leathery leaves. Ferns and Orchids are abundant in these hill 
forests, and here, too, may be found many familiar genera, such ~ 
as Anemone, Viola, Ranunculus, Rubus, etc. 
The “ Dry Country ” of Northeastern Ceylon was once “ the 
granary of India,” and numerous ruins of religious edifices and 
