BOTANY AND AGRICULTURE IN CEYLON 311 



the discoverer of conjugation in the Diatoms, and author of 

 other good work in microscopic botany. Thwaites was probably 

 the best man who has ever been concerned with any English 

 botanic garden in the tropics, and he devoted himself to his 

 work, without once taking a holiday or leaving the island for 

 a period of thirty-one years (1849-80). Dropping the study 

 of his favourite Cryptogams, he at once began to work at the 

 Ceylon flora, and with such success that during 1858-64 he was 

 able, aided by Sir Joseph Hooker, to bring out the first flora 

 of the island which had any approach to completeness, his 

 Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylanice. This is not, it is true, a com- 

 plete flora, even so far as it goes, for it only describes (in Latin) 

 the new species, and is too technical for any but the botanist. 

 Under the species which had already been described elsewhere, 

 nothing is given but native names, and miscellaneous informa- 

 tion. But by the publication of this book, the back of the 

 work of preparing a Ceylon flora was broken, and it was merely 

 a matter of further detailed work to prepare a complete flora. 

 Thwaites himself intended to write a popular and complete 

 flora of the island, but was prevented by pressure of work and 

 advancing age. 



Not only did Thwaites do yeoman work at the Ceylon flora, 

 but he also devoted himself to the more practical side of his 

 work with conspicuous success. Nearly all the plants which 

 have proved so useful and valuable in Ceylon agriculture, except 

 those previously introduced by the Dutch or Portuguese, were 

 introduced during his tenure of office. We may best illustrate 

 this statement by giving a few conspicuous examples. 



The best known is, of course, cinchona, the source of the 

 valuable alkaloid quinine. This was introduced from the Andes 

 of Peru by a special expedition sent thither under the leadership 

 of Mr. (now Sir) Clements Markham, and was established in the 

 hill botanic garden at Hakgala, in Ceylon, in 1861. For a long 

 time it was almost impossible to get any one to trouble about 

 the plants, although they were given away ; but as coffee culti- 

 vation began to fail, they were taken up, cautiously at first, 

 but with a rush as soon as the profits realised by the pioneers 

 became known. Rapidly the hills of Ceylon were covered with 

 cinchona, and the export rose in a few years to fifteen million 

 pounds, the price of quinine falling from 125. to is. an ounce, and 

 ruining the profitableness of the industry. The export declined 



