VEGETATION OF CEYLON. 31 



large, with twisted sepals and petals, of a yellowish white, 

 spotted or marbled with dull blush ; the lip is nearly white, and 

 very large. The plant may be grown either upon a rugged 

 block, surrounded with fibry peat, or in a well-drained pot filled 

 with fibry peat and half-decayed leaves ; it only requires a very 

 moderate amount of heat and moisture during the growing 

 season, and should be kept quite cool and rather dry afterwards 

 for a short time. Its flowers remain long in perfection, but 

 have no scent. 



50. Odontoglossum citrosmum. — This very beautiful Mexican 

 plant flowers in June and July ; the blossoms are large, seven or 

 eight together on a slender stem, white stained, with rosy 

 crimson near the margin. It does best fastened to a rugged 

 block on some rough fibry peat, and suspended from the roof; 

 it requires a warm situation, but not one tliat is over moist even 

 in the growing season, as stagnant moisture is very injurious to 

 this plant. Its waxy large round flowers, somewhat resembling 

 those of Phalaenopsis amabilis, remain long in perfection, and 

 are delightfully lemon-scented. 



IV. — Contributions to a History of the Relation between 

 Climate and Vegetation in various parts of the Globe. 



No. 9. — The Vegetation of Ceylon. By George Gardner, 

 F.L.S., Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon. 



Although Ceylon is celebrated for the luxuriant vegetation by 

 which it is covered, the plants which compose it are less known 

 to botanists than those perhaps of any other portion of India of 

 equal extent. While the history and uses of the vegetable pro- 

 ductions of the possessions of the East India Company, and most 

 of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, have been given to the 

 world by modern botanists, those of Ceylon are at the present 

 day nearly as little understood in Europe as they were 100 years 

 ago, when Linnaeus published his ' Flora Zeylanica,' founded on 

 collections which had been made in the island by Hermann, 

 a Dutch botanist, about seventy years before. It is true that 

 during the last few years the descriptions of several Ceylon 

 plants have been published in different scientific periodical pub- 

 lications, both by Indian and European botanists ; but although a 

 botanical institution has been maintained in the colony at the 

 expense of Government for upwards of the last thirty years. 



