BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 285 



coloured flowers of the Madagascar periwinkle, the specious 

 blue of the Exactim Zeylaniciim, Roxb., and by tiie delicate 

 Burmmmia disticha. Early in the morning, the Paddy-Bird, 

 or white Egret, raises its plaintive cry, or is seen floating over 

 the lake, while the Passijlora ftetida, bespangled with dew, 

 stars the dim grove with its moss-sheathed and snow-white 

 petals. The marshy margins encourage the growth of tlie 

 weeping-bamboo, of the lotus-lily, and Sumatran Cassia 

 {Cassia Sumatrana), the latter in flower forming a golden 

 expanse, seen afar off, and the haunt of ultramarine king- 

 fishers ; and the waters themselves are often bordered by the 

 azure-spiked Balnahuta (Dog's tail), Stachytarpheta IndicOy 

 which for some miles around Herat Goddah form a natural 

 carpeting. We also find an insignificant Larkspur. The 

 most common brush-wood at this part of the lake consists of 

 Idda Gar (a plant with white flowers and pods like French 

 willows), Carissa spinarum, Osbeckias, Crotalaria retiisa, and 

 laburnifolia ; Cassias, and tlie blue, scarlet, and white flowers of 

 the Samara Iceta* the Ixora coccinea, and the Pavetta Indica, 

 together with the wax-berried Ehretia aspera^ and the Cates- 

 bcea spinosay or yellow-flower lily-thorn. Many of these 

 shrubs minfjle their foliao;e with the Kahaafa-mula-nati-wala 

 (Cuscuta refexd)^ and the scarlet and black-seeded Abrits 

 precatorins, called Olinda. We have also the Ulmus integri- 

 folia; but the most common trees here are the bread-fruit, 

 wild bread-fruit, and jack, the Java almond and cinnamon, 

 the Dillenia aguatica, not unlike an alder, and Tabernamon- 

 tana dichotoma, or forbidden fruit, the Avcrrhoa Bilimbi, and 

 Cashew. There is likewise the handsome 31orinda citrifolia, 

 and CalophyUum inophyllum, the lofty Coral and tlie Pippal 

 tree. The same vegetation extends over the Cinnamon- 

 gardens to the belt of Cocoa-nuts which overhang the sea, and 

 nearer which grow in profusion the beautiful Mertensia dicko- 

 toma^ and the Lycopodiwn cernuum, used as a shelter for the 

 young cinnamon. In marshy ground occurs the Pitcher Plant, 



* A species oi Memecylon is probably here meant. — Ed. 



