BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 283 



to Matelai, made in August, 1839. This rough sketch is 

 <Ione from memory, and consequently cannot be depended 

 on. We found a valley entirely flooded, which we passed 

 with considerable risk, myself in my Bandy, (Ceylon Biinrrry) 

 and Mr Hume on horseback. \\"e saw several cattle carried 

 off by the stream, and the inhabitants of the village repre- 

 sented, were seated on the roofs of their huts, the water 

 flowinfj through the doors and windows. 



Otian Kandy. — Probably three thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea, looking down on the district called four 

 Korles. In the foreground is a Ceylon oak-tree [Schleicher a 

 trijuga), Kohngaha, and a Bombax heptaphyllum. 



The Kandy Lake, and its beautiful border of Thespe- 

 sia trees; their thin green foliage dotted with large primrose- 

 coloured hollyhock-like flowers, or turning into yellow sear ; 

 screening hills covered with "dell," (brush-wood,) or mount- 

 ed by trees, bamboos, and cocoa-palms, bewitchingly inter- 

 mingling their plumage. In sunshine they seem to over- 

 hang the waters of the lake ; obscured, they retire, dark- 

 ening to a neutral tint from deep green to purple with 

 green marbling. At sunset, the fleeced clouds frequently 

 become roseate. I have seen the waters o? the lake borrow 

 the reflection, rivalling in glaucous hue the famed Andnlu- 

 sian morning-stars, and afterwards becoming a silken blue. 

 In the sultry forenoon, a breath of air ruffles the Bamboo ; 

 they bend over like reeds, but so droopingly and so languidly, 

 and recover themselves with such grace, that the effect is 

 charming. One evening at" sunset, the waters of the lake 

 became roseate. At night 



It is a clime whose veriest decay 

 Adds fresh luxuriance to the tangled maze 

 Of jungle parasites. Glittering in the raj's 

 Of the bright orb of night. 

 The fire-fly's purer light. 

 Adds brilliance to the lovely flower. 

 Of the Thespesias foliaged bower. 

 Storehouse, Matalai. — The two principal trees are a 

 jungle Nutmeg {Myristka Syria (?) Moon), and behind it a 



