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The Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon.—To mark the centenary 
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, which falls this year, 
a brochure tracing its history and illustrating the many-sided 
activities of the Institution has been published as the joint work 
of Mr. Stockdale, Director of Agriculture, Mr. Petch, Botanist and 
Mycologist, and Mr. Macmillan, Superintendent of Botanic 
Gardens. The review is grouped under six sections, the first 
three dealing chiefly with the history and development of the 
Gardens and its various branches, the last three summarising 
the botanical and agricultural work carried out. 
In the first section, which is headed “ History,’ it is recorded 
that the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, like other well-known 
tropical stations, was not originally established on the site where 
it is found to-day. The dates of founding the first garden are 
suggested as 1810, 1811, and 1812, the latter date being the one 
most favoured. The site too is a matter for conjecture and 
there were probably two stations, Caltura Garden and the Garden 
at Colombo until in 1821 when a site, selected by Alexander 
Moon at Peradeniya, was finally approved and the Botanic 
Garden instituted there in 1822, where it now covers an area 
of 147 acres. 
During the first period attention was chiefly devoted to 
growing coffee and vegetables, the actual development of the 
Gardens being considered to date from the appointment of 
George Gardner in 1844. ‘‘ Landscape Development and Accli- 
matisation ”’ is dealt with in the second section, where the gradual 
evolution of the Garden is traced and a record of the construction 
of the principal features given. The main outline of the Garden 
was traced by Thwaites who was in charge first as Superintendent 
and later as the first Director from 1849 to 1880, and this work 
was completed by Trimen, the second Director, from 1880-1896. 
The third section deals with the “ Establishment of Branch 
Gardens.’ In all five branch gardens have been established in 
different climatic zones of Ceylon, but only two—Hakgala and 
Henaratgoda—are still retained under the Department. Henarat- 
goda Garden has the distinction of having been opened for the 
accommodation of the then recently introduced rubber plant: 
from South America, and the original plantation of Hevea 
brasiliensis is still to be seen there. A brief account of the 
various attempts to introduce plants raised at Kew from South 
American seed is given, and the success that attended a consign- 
ment of nearly 2000 seedlings which had been raised at Kew 
and sent to Ceylon in 1876 marked the establishment of Para 
rubber in the East. 
The section dealing with “ Botanical Research” is perhaps 
the most interesting. Many well-known names are here recorded 
with reference to work carried out at Peradeniya. 
noteworthy feature of the early period of Ceylon botany was 
innaeus’ work published in 1747 as the Flora Zeylanica, 
