THE PALAEOTROPICS is? 



green forest, but much less luxuriant than that of the west coa 

 and denominated by Brandis l "semi-evergreen scrub." Among 

 the constituents of this formation may be mentioned species of 

 Flacourtia, Pterospermum, Erythroxylon, Carissa, Ehretia. 

 Where moisture is more abundant, as in some of the hill-country. 

 and parts of Madras, this formation becomes a true evergreen 

 forest. 



The province of Madras, occupying the southeastern part 

 of the Peninsula is open to the sea and much better watered than 

 the Deccan. It is a fertile region, and travelling through in De- 

 cember, the writer noted luxuriant crops of rice and cotton, the 

 latter in full bloom. Tobacco and millet are both important crops. 



A very different flora is found in the Nilgiri Hills where the East- 

 ern and Western Ghats join. In the higher elevations, which ex- 

 ceed 7,000 feet, a temperate flora occurs much like that of the 

 eastern Himalaya and the mountains of Assam and north Burma. 

 Such common northern genera as Rubus, Viburnum, Rhamnus, 

 Hypericum, etc., occur, many of them the same species as those 

 of the mountains of northeast India. 



Ceylon 



Ceylon, an island of more than 25,000 square miles area, owing 

 to its proximity to the equator has a uniformly hot climate, with- 

 out the extremes that prevail in much of continental India. In 

 the humid coastal areas, such as Colombo, the annual range is 

 very small. 



The rainfall varies much in the different parts of the island, and 

 is largely controlled by the trend of the principal mountain in 

 which rises to over 8,000 feet in the southwest. This range is an 

 effective barrier to the passage of the rain-clouds brought by the 

 southwest monsoon in the late spring, and most of the moisture is 

 precipitated on the seaward side of the mountains, while the north- 

 eastern plains get very little rain at this time. In the autumn, the 

 northwest monsoon brings much more general, but less heavy 



rainfall. 



The flora of Ceylon, in its main features, is much like thai of 



1 For details of the vegetation of the forest regions of India, Bee Bran. lis. P.. 

 Indian Trees, London, 1906. 



