4AGRARY 
' YORE 
ACT ANICAL 
INTRODUCTION Ete ag 
A COMPARISON of Trimen’s Flora of Ceylon with recently 
published Indian Floras, such as J. S. Gamble’s Flora of 
the Presidency of Madras, H. H. Haines’s Botany of 
Bihar and Orissa, T. Cooke’s Flora of the Presidency of 
Bombay, and H. N. Ridley’s Flora of the Malay Peninsula, 
shows that many genera and species are given different 
names to those used by Trimen. This is due to the correc- 
tion of mistakes, changes in the limits of genera and species, 
and changes made for nomenclatural reasons. In this work 
a summary of all these changes has been made to bring 
Trimen’s work up to date as far as possible. The author 
has endeavoured to retain Trimen’s arrangement and names 
whenever possible. Thus Hallier’s division of [pomea into 
several genera, which is accepted by Gamble but rejected by 
Haines, has not been adopted, and certain homonyms which 
have been proposed by Haines but rejected by Gamble have 
also been rejected. Trimen’s spelling of the adjective 
seylanicus, which is also that of Linnzus and the older 
botanists, has been retained; to have done otherwise would 
logically necessitate the admission of ceylanicus and zeylani- 
cus as valid specific names in the same genus. Certain names 
such as Botrys Lour., Bahel Adans., Anatheruwm Beauv. and 
Rhaphis Lour., which have been adopted by no modern 
authors, have been rejected, and it is proposed that 
Ampelocissus Planch., Asteracantha Nees, V etiveria Thouars, 
and Chrysopogon Trin., which have been retained for the 
above genera, should be added to the list of nomina conser- 
vanda,; but there seems no reason for conserving Ampelecissus 
Planch. against Vitis Linn. or Cissus Linn., Asteracantha 
Nees against Hygrophila R.Br., or Vetiveria Thouars 
against Andropogon Linn. 
Descriptions of several new species and of certain 
naturalized plants which were not described by Trimen have 
been added, and plants found as casuals but not established 
have been inserted in the keys but not described. The doubt- 
eqyiul records mentioned by Trimen have similarly been inserted 
cs in the keys, as it appears that Trimen excluded several plants 
©? which will probably be rediscovered; Cleome Burmanii and 
~ Blumea Wightiana have already been found. 
Comparatively few botanical works have been published in 
we Ceylon in recent years, the most important being F. Lewis’s 
aq Descriptive Catalogue of the More Useful Trees and 
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