171 



NOTES ON THE FLOEA OF CEYLON. 

 By Henry Trimen, M.B., F.L.S. 



(CoDtiniieil iVom p. 145). 



Sonneratia alba Sm. — Mangrove swamps at Chilan, on the west 

 coast, November, 1881. I am indebted to H. Nevill, Esq., for 

 specimens of this interesting addition to our flora. It grows with 

 the common Ceylon species, <S'. acida L. f., from which it is readily 

 distinguished by the absence of petals, the longitudinally G-ribbed 

 calyx-tube, the depresso-tiu'biuate and shortly apiculate fruit, and 

 other characters. This adds another to the numerous Ceylon 

 plants which, though found in the Malay Peninsula and Islands, 

 do not reach the Peninsula of India. 



Blepharispermum petiolarc DC. — Not uncommon about Tissa- 

 maharama, Kirinida, Hambantota, &c. A remarkable straggling 

 shrub, the woody stem attaining an inch in diameter, and climbing 

 by its horizontal branches. It appears to have been first collected 

 by Klein in 1796, and his description is quoted by DC. in Wight's 

 ' Contrib.,' p. 12, where the species is founded. Klein's locality is 

 given there as " prope Ugandamalej," in Ceylon. This locality is 

 omitted in DC. Prod. v. 368, nor until now has anyone since 

 recorded the species for this island, I can find no place with a 

 name similar to that above given,''' nor am I aware whether Klein 

 ever visited Ceylon. Wight gathered the plant at Courtallum, but 

 it appears to be a very scarce species. 



Tithonia diversifulia A. Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad, xix., p. 6 

 (1883) (Mirasolia Hemsl.). — This very handsome " sun-flower" from 

 Mexico has now become one of the commonest weeds of Ceylon, 

 and is always an object of notice by travellers, who of course think 

 it a native plant. It attains 8 or 10 ft. high, and its large heads, 

 4 or 5 in. in diameter, are of a singularly brilliant yellow. It often 

 lines the roadsides for long distances, and in places rivals Lantana 

 in abundance, whilst it has a much wider climatic range in the 

 island than that extraordinary weed of hot moist regions. It is, 

 however, a much later introduction here, for Dr. Thwaites told ine 

 that he remembered receiving the seed from Dr. Lindley in 1851, 

 as then recently obtained from California ; it has no doubt spread 

 from Peradeniya. I see from A. Gray's memoir, above quoted, 

 that it has been collected in Mexico near Orizaba and Cordoba by 

 Botteri and Bourgeau, and that it is figured in Godman's ' Biologia 

 Cent. Americana,' Botany, ii. t. 47, a work I have not seen. It is 

 singular that this familiar Ceylon weed should thus have remained 

 unnamed till within the last three or four years. 



Lobelia exceha Lesch., var. trichandra Wight (sp.). — In the 

 Maskeliya District of the Central Province, at an alt. of about 

 6000 ft. This is the plant figured in Wight's ' Icones,' t. 1171 ; it 

 is well enough distinguished as a variety by the leaves being per- 

 fectly glabrous on both surfaces, the branched inflorescence, the 



* Mr. Nevill .suggests Likauda, a village on the east coast, within forty miles 

 of the places where I found the plant. 



