Mibiiographical Notice, 455 



"Pepper-worts festoon the forest. Along with these the trunks 

 of the larger trees are profusely covered with other delicate creepers, 

 chiefly Convolvidi mA Ipomceas \ and the ^iichQr-\Am\t {Nepenthes 

 distillatoria) lures the passer-by to halt and conjecture the probable 

 uses of the curious raechanisia by means of which it distils a quantity 

 of limpid fluid into the vegetable vases at the extremity of its leaves. 

 The Orchideae suspend their pendulous flowers from the angles of 

 branches, whilst the bare roots and the lower part of the stem are 

 occasionally covered with fungi of the most gaudy colours, bright 

 red, yellow, and purple. 



**0f the east side of the island the botany has never yet been 

 examined by any scientific resident ; but the productions of the hill 

 country have been largely explored, and present features altogether 

 distinct from those of the plains. For the first two or three thou- 

 sand feet the dissimilarity is less perceptible to an unscientific eye ; 

 but as we descend, the difference becomes apparent, in the larger 

 size of the leaves, and the nearly uniform colour of the foliage, ex- 

 cept where the scarlet shoots of the iron-wood tree {Mesua ferrea) 

 seem like flowers in their blood-red hue. Here the broad leaves of 

 the wild plantains (Musa textilis) penetrate the soil among the 

 broken rocks ; and in moist spots the graceful bamboo flourishes in 

 groups, whose feathery foliage waves like the plumes of the ostrich. 



" Here peaches, cherries, and other European fruit trees, grow 

 freely ; but as they become evergreens in this summer climate, as 

 if exhausted by perennial excitement, and deprived of their winter 

 repose, they refuse to ripen their fruit. 



"The tea-plant has been raised with entire success in the hills on 

 the estate of the Messrs. Worms, at Rothschild, in Pusilawa ; but 

 the want of any skilful manipulators to collect and prepare the leaves 

 renders it hopeless to attempt any experiment on a large scale, until 

 assistance can be secured from China to conduct the preparation. 



" Still ascending, at an elevation of 6500 feet, as we approach the 

 mountain plateau of Neura-ellia, the dimensions of the trees again 

 diminish ; the stems and branches are covered with Orchidese and 

 mosses, and around them spring up herbaceous plants and balsams, 

 with here and there broad expanses covered with Acanthacece, whose 

 seeds are the favourite food of the jungle-fowl, which are always in 

 perfection during the ripening of the Nilloo. It is in these regions 

 that the tree-ferns {Alsophila gig ant ea) rise from the damp hollows 

 and carry their gracefully plumed heads sometimes to the height of 

 20 feet. At length in the loftiest range of the hills the Rhododendrons 

 are discovered — no longer delicate bushes as in Europe, but timber- 

 trees 50 to 70 feet in height, and of corresponding dimensions, — 

 every branch covered with a blaze of crimson flowers. In these 

 forests are also to be met with some species of Michelia, the Indian 

 representatives of the Magnolias of South America, several arboreous 

 Myrtace(B and Ternstrcemiacece.y the most common of which is the 

 camelia-like Gordonia Ceylonica. These and Vaccinia Gaultheria, 

 Goughia, and Gomphandra establish the aflinity between the vegeta- 

 tion of this region and that of the Malabar ranges, the Khasia and 

 Lower Himalaya." 



