Nov. I, 1 



.fiis i^mpiQkL AmicuLwum\ 



2'y. 



STBAY BOTANICAL NOTES FEOM A VISITOR 

 TO THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE, CEYLON. 



Galle, 27th Sept. 188(3. 



At about 12-30 yesterday a strong South- West 

 'blowiH[/,' accompanied by rain, began at Kahitara. 

 The rain soon ceased, but the monsoon blew 

 steadily and strongly nearly all the rest of the 

 day till about 8 p.m., when the mail coach ar- 

 rived at Galle. " Brucea Sumatrana" which the 

 late Dr. Gardener found common on the Hantane 

 range as an escape from the Royal Gardens of 

 Peradeniya, is become a very common plant about 

 Kalutara, and the " Scoparia dulcis,'' a West 

 Indian plant, and known as a " ballest plant" 

 which the writer of this tirst found growing at 

 Galle when on a visit in 1871, has now spread 

 in some mysterious way over considerable por- 

 tions of Ceylon. It was very conspicuous at Kalu- 

 tara and Galle, and whole fields of it were ob- 

 served near some of the tea estates at Awissa- 

 wella some years ago. The " Turnera ulmifolia,' 

 with its conspicuous light, yellow colored 

 flowers, is a roadside plant all over the West- 

 ern and Southern Provinces, whilst the lantana 

 of several hues seems to have taken complete 

 possession of tracts of the country from Mount 

 Lavinia to Galle. The fact that the portion of 

 Ceylon from Kalutara to Bentota is the most ex- 

 posed to the force of the S.-W. monsoon rains, 

 is amply exemplitied in the luxuriance of the bread- 

 fruit trees growing here, some of which must be 

 fully tiO to 70 feet in height, and coconut trees 

 upwards of 100, and other plants and trees in pro- 

 portion. In the Kachcheri grounds here, I noticed 

 a solitary old tree of " Dalbergia Sissoo," which 

 you will recollect, was introduced by the late Mr. 

 Anstruther from India as a timber tree that would 

 come to perfection in 20 years, and of which several 

 hundreds were planted as avenue trees in Colombo 

 and elsewhere about 30 to 35 years ago, but which 

 have all died out and I do not now recollect where 

 anyone in the Western Province exists. The late 

 Dr. Boake is my authority for stating that in the seeds 

 of this tree sown in the avenue of Queen's College 

 it was that the now common " Luccena glauca " 

 first sprung up. This is the white-flowered Acacia- 

 like plant now so common in and around Colombo 

 with fiat brown pods, the seeds of which are strung 

 together for necklaces Ac. I saw today at "Cbsenberg' 

 where Mr. Scott now lives, the Doum palms planted 

 by Captain Baj'ley some years ago, 3 or 4of them in full 

 fruit and a younger one just beginning to bifurcate. 

 This is the famous "HyphiTine thebaica' of upper 

 Egypt and is remarkable for the fact that it is a 

 branching palm always divided into two. There are two 

 of these which have divided four different times, so 

 that each of these have IG different heads bearing 

 fruits, instead of the original single head. There 

 are two of these singular palms in the Queen's House 

 grounds in Colombo, one of which has begun to 

 flower and bifurcate and another at Temple Trees, 

 the residence of the Messrs. Green, Kollupitiya. 

 With the exception of the bifurcations, this palm is 

 so like the palmyra, that it may be easily mistaken 

 for this common palm. — About 28 people drowned 

 here in the late storm. 



The " Treasury of Botany " says : — 



Hyphtene. A small genus of African palms con- 

 fined to and widely distributed throughout that con- 

 tinent, more particularly upon the eastern side, extend- 

 ing from Egypt as far south as Natal. The 

 genus is remarkable for having the stem branched, a ] 

 peculiarity not frequent among palms, each branch 

 terminating in a tuft of large fan-shaped leaves, from 

 amongst which the branching catkin-like spikes of 

 £7w&rs aveiroduced; tb9dit{9i'6ut sexes beipg boru^ '• 

 38 



on separate trees. The fruit is about the size of an 

 apple, and has a tliicli mealy fibrous riud with a smooth 

 polished skin, enclosing a single hollow seed of a horny 

 coDsistsncy. i/. //(('ia<c«, the Doum or Doom Palm, or 

 Ginger-bread treeof Egypt, grows also iu Nubia, Abys- 

 sinia and Arabia. It seldom exeeds twenty -five or thirty 

 feet iu height, and its stem is frequently three or 

 four times forked or branched in old trees, tlimgh 

 when youug it is always simple. The fruits, which 

 are produced in long clusters, each coutaiuiug between 

 one and two hundred, are beautifully polished, of 

 a rich yellowish-brown colour, and of irregular form. 

 In Upper Egypt they form part of the food of the 

 poorer classes of inhabitants, the part eaten being 

 the fibrous mealy husk, which tastes almost exactly 

 like gingerbread, but its dry husky nature renders 

 it unpalatable. The hard tough wood is u~ed for 

 making various domestic utensils ; and rosaries 

 are cut out of the horny seed. See Plate 18. The 

 doom-palm of Egypt (H^pluene Thebaica) has a 

 trunk which divides iu a dichotomous manner; its 

 pericarp is used as food, and has a taste of ginger- 

 bread. Ill the parched districts between the rivers 

 Dande and Zenza, in tropical Africa, Welwitsch came 

 upon a palm forest five leagues in length, which con- 

 sisted exclusively of the crowded stems of a branched 

 palm belonging probably to Hi/phceae. Like most 

 African palms, this yields an excellent wine. 



^ 



COLONIAL AND INDIAN EXHIBITION: 



BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. 



North Borneo is a British colony unattached, iu this 

 respect occupying a po.'ition the converse of that of 

 Cyprus, but similar to that ot the Niger districts. It 

 is a part of tlie British Empire by virtue of the charter 

 granted to the company which owns it and governs itj 

 and is on a similar footing to that of many of our 

 colonies when first we began to expand beyond the seas, 

 and indeed, to India in the early days of " John Com- 

 panj'." But we have long ceased to make colonies after 

 this fashion, and it might be well to put an end to 

 the anomalous position of North Borneo by according 

 to it the dignity, rights and privileges of the other 

 members of our great colonial family. As it is, though 

 only a company's property, it has all the paraphern.alia 

 of a Crown colony. It has its Ooven.or, styled "Ex- 

 cellency by his subordinates, its colonial secretary and 

 treasurer, its residents and sub-residents, and ail the 

 other officials whose designations form so prominent 

 a feature in the Colonial Office List. Its interesting 

 and well-stocked little court forms a continuation of 

 that of the Straits Settlements. From a commercial 

 point of view timber is the most prominent and most 

 important exhibit. Like m.iny of the other colonies in 

 the Exhibition, North Borneo regards itself as the 

 great timberyard of the world. Timber it certainly 

 has in abundance; it is one vast forest, and of its 

 timber there are several kinds of great economical 

 value. One of the principal woods shown in the com t i.s 

 known as billian. a timber that sinks in water, is very 

 hard and durable, and is already being exported in 

 considerable quantities to Australia. Other timbers 

 are exported to China and the Straits Settlements 

 as well as Australia. North Borneo hns a consider" 

 able number of other woods which are siid to b3 of 

 great utility where strength and <lurab!iity arc re- 

 quired, such as russak, tapang, paluwan, greeting 

 camphor, sereah or Borneo cedar (used in Australia), 

 &c. There are also several good fiunitnre vioods to 

 be seen in the l^xhibition, of fine grain, and eapablo 

 of beautiful polish, resembling maliogan^- and walnut. 

 The Borneo forests are still practically virgin, and no 

 doubt the company will take warning from other 

 colonies that now lament the reckless destruction of 

 their forests. Timber does not as jet figure largely 

 among the exports of the embyro eoloi-.y, but with 

 its many converging streams, giving facilities forUoat- 

 ing down logs, and its really fine harboiu's, much might 

 be made of it in supplying .some of the comparatively 

 timberles-? couutries of the Far East, ^» far fts Europe 



