180 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
communicated to us, and likewise to Professor Lindley, are 
extensive and valuable, and we trust ere long to give some 
account of them in these pages. 
In Ceylon, Colonel Walker, Deputy-Adjutant-General, 
resident at Kandy, together with his accomplished lady, are 
zealously engaged in collecting and drawing the plants, many 
of which are so celebrated for their beauty and their aromatic* 
fragrance. 
* Linneus with much taste and judgment thus draws a comparison 
between the vegetation of Ceylon, and, as it would appear, that of his native 
country, Sweden; ** A delicious climate has granted to this island plants of 
such variety and value, that scarcely any soil can vie with it, for the abun- 
dance of its aromatic productions. Whilst Pine-forests occupy our cold and 
sterile regions, in Ceylon, the Cinnamon- Trees constitute whole groves; 
in such plenty indeed, that the inhabitants are accustomed to employ the 
wood for household furniture, for fuel and for cooking. Our orchards are 
planted with Apples, Pears, Plums and Cherries, and other similar trees; 
but in Ceylon, nothing is esteemed save the lofty Palms, among which 
the Cocoa-Nuts chiefly afford the needful food, utensils, and every thing 
necessary to mankind. The Caryota there yields a wine called Suri; 
and the Coryphe, or Fan-Palms, extend their broad, smooth and plaited 
fronds, which serve for shade and shelter, there most requisite for protec- 
tion from the sun’s rays, as well as from sudden showers, to the natives» 
whose only garment is a scanty covering of linen. Date Palms, and the 
superb Bananas, decorated with wide-spreading and glossy foliage, present, 
in great profusion, racemes of the most delicious fruit; to say nothing of the 
more valuable productions with which the soil every-where abounds, such 
as Mangoes, the Jack, Malay-Apples, Psidia, Oranges and Citrons, 
Cashew-Nuts, Averrhoas, &c.—Our fields are sown with common Barley 
and Rye; but those of the Cingalese receive nothing but Rice, which 
affords them flower and bread. Our marshes are covered with Calle; 
theirs with the fragrant Amoma. Persicarias occupy our waste places; 
but with them grow different species of Pepper. In our meadows spring 
the Ranunculus, Plantains, Convallarias, and many other neglected 
plants; in theirs, numerous kinds of Hedysarum, Galega, Hibiscus, 
Justicia, Cleome, Impatiens, Amomum, Myrtle, and Ricinus; besides 
numerous climbers, as Ipomea, Dioscorea, Basella, Aristolochia, 
Ophioglossum, Phaseolus, Momordica, Bryonia, Vine, Cissus, Pothos, 
Loranthus and Acrostichum. In the room of the Meadow-Sweet and 
