, 
vague idea that all animals and vegetables had originally ra- 
diated from a common centre; and that in the same parallels of 
latitude the same species would be found. This we now know 
not to be the case: it may be as safely asserted that every 
large tract of country has had its own peculiar creation of both 
plants and animals, as that two and two make four, the excep- 
tions to this general rule being accounted for by disseminating 
causes now in operation. In no other way can we account 
for Europe having a totally different class of plants from that 
part of North America which lies immediately opposite to it ; 
or for the botany of Southern Africa bearing little or no resem- 
blance to that of the same parallels in South America, or to 
that of Australia; or for many small Islands, such as that of 
St. Helena, possessing a vegetation totally different even from 
that of the nearest continent. Islands, however, in general, 
approach nearest in the nature of their productions to the 
countries to which they most nearly range in a geographical point 
of view, and this we shall find to be the case with Ceylon. 
Both the climate and the soil of the maritime parts of 
the western side of Ceylon being very similar to that of the 
Malabar coast, we find that a large proportion of the plants 
of both places are identical; and the same holds good with 
reference to the northern and north-cast coasts of Ceylon and 
the opposite Coromandel coast; although each district in 
both countries possesses species peculiar to each. A. vegeta- 
tion, more or less similar to that of the coast, extends inland 
to the foot of the great mountain chain; but from thence 
upwards, a very great change takes place, and almost every 
thousand feet of elevation shows a vegetation which, though 
merging into those immediately above and beneath it, offers 
species which do not range beyond it. It is. at an elevation 
of from 2,000 to 8,000 feet that the greater part of the 
species of plants peculiar to Ceylon are to be found; but most 
of these belong to forms, that is, to natural orders or genera, 
which form part of the vegetation of neighbouring countries, 
such as the Neelgherry mountains in the peninsula of India, 
the Himalaya mountains, the high lands of Malacca, and of the 
Eastern Islands, but more particularly Java; and I have lately 
even met with a few species indicating an affinity with the 
continent of Africa. 
I shall now offer some remarks on the nature of the vegeta- 
tion which characterizes the different botanical regions of the 
Island. The truly littoral plants of all countries present: a greater 
number of identical species in widely separated localities of the 
