Chap. II] PERIODIC PHENOMENA IN THE TROPICS 257 



CEYLON. 



MEAN TEMPERATURES IN CENTIGRADE. 

 (After Woeikof, Die Klimate der Erde, I. p. 379.) 



It may be seen, here as in Java, that the influence of temperature can be 

 neglected. 



I consider it not unlikely that in Trimen's Flora the 'flowering seasons' repre- 

 sent frequently merely the dates of collection of the specimens. Nevertheless 

 they attest in the clearest manner, especially in woody plants, the favourable 

 influence of the dry season, and, indeed, corresponding to the two dry seasons 

 are two maxima of flowering seasons, a larger one in spring, a smaller one late 

 in the summer. 



The flowering periods, so far as they do not continue throughout the year, are 

 distributed in Ceylon over the different months, as is shown in the following table, 

 in which the figures indicate number of species : — 



CEYLON. 

 DISTRIBUTION OF FLOWERING PERIODS. 



The three published volumes of the Flora of Ceylon include the Dicotyledones, 

 except the Euphorbiaceae, Urticaceae, and Cupuliferae. Twenty-five woody plants 

 and seventy-two herbs are given as blossoming throughout the year, but these 

 figures are certainly too small. It is indeed not a rare phenomenon in the tropics, 

 that whilst the great majority of individuals of a species are not blossoming, a small 

 number are in flower. The seasons of the year are not followed so strictly. In 

 Koorders' careful reports we therefore find a relatively greater number of species 

 that flower throughout the year, but often with the proviso that they blossom chiefly 

 at a definite season, usually during the east monsoon. Of 107 Javanese trees 

 treated in the first two parts of the book, the flowering seasons of which may be 

 considered as certainly established, I find 22 stated as blossoming throughout 



SC1IIMPER 



