A STUDY TN ENDBMISMv 29.*? 



Psychotria Thwaitesij 

 Chasalia curviflora 

 Geophila reniformis 

 Ardisia Missionis 

 Jasminum flexile 



Fagraea obovata 

 Litsea zeylanica 

 Ficus infectoria 

 Asparagus gonoclados 

 A. f ale at us 



Excluding these 24, our flora is reduced to 79 species. 



It is worthy of note that these are all fairly common species, 

 and that of them 8 are scarlet-fruited, 5 purple, 1 orange red, 

 1 orange and white, 4 green or greenish white, 3 white. It 

 would thus seem to be evident that conspicuousness of the 

 fruit has something to do with its chance of being carried away 

 by a fruit-eating bird. 



Here again the endemic form, if it can be regarded as a 

 distinct form, viz., the slight variety of Cyclea Burmanni, is 

 probably one of the least conspicuous and least likely to be 

 carried by birds. As it is only hitherto recorded from the 

 low country of Ceylon, it is also living in a markedly different 

 climate on the summit of Ritigala. 



We may now exclude those evidently carried by the wind. 

 Here we are practically limited to the orchids and ferns, with 

 a few Compositae, Apocynaceae, and Asclepiadaceae, because 

 though adaptations for wind carriage are very widespread, 

 they as a rule are not efficient enough to carry the seeds more 

 than a few yards in a climate like that of Ceylon, where the 

 wind is very light. The island is too near to the equator to 

 come within the zone of cyclones, and there is no reason to 

 suppose that there can have been strong winds here for a vast 

 length of time. These wind-carried species are : — 



Vernonia Hookeriana 

 Gynura lycopersicif olia 

 Anodendron rhinosporum 

 Tylophora cordifolia 

 Hoya ovalifolia 

 Liparis obscura 

 Dendrobium Macraei 



Bulbophyllum , sp. nov. 



B. purpureum 



B. elegans 



CirrJwpetalum Macraei, var. 



Pholidota imbricata 



Eria muscicola 



E. Lindleyi 



