114 THE WHOLE ART OF RIBBER-CROWIXG 



never answer in Ceylon or elsewhere, unless it can 

 be associated as nearly as possible with just those 

 elements — both of soil and of climate — that are 

 peculiar to the country in which it is found. I am, 

 however, of opinion — speaking again from my own 

 observations, that there are large tracts of land 

 available in Ceylon which would grow the Dichotoma 

 profitably. Trfus the whole of the country shortly 

 to be embraced by the new railway line to Mannar 

 and the existing line from Anuradhapura to Jaffna 

 appears to be admirably suited to Dichotoma culture, 

 judging from the behaviour of the plants under ex- 

 periments at Maha-Illupalama. Many of these trees 

 scarcely eighteen months old have a stature of 

 15 feet or more, and I was much struck by the great 

 length of bole which a large number of them pre- 

 sented — a very unusual feature in the Brazilian 

 Dichotoma. It may be that here in what has been 

 for hundreds of years practically abandoned territory 

 Dichotoma will find at last a congenial home. Up to 

 the present the plant has only earned the reputation 

 of being perhaps the most eccentric alien ever intro- 

 duced into the East. I made a very careful study 

 of the plantation at Peradeniya with a view to deter- 

 mining whether the tree was likely to exhibit perma- 

 nently in its new home those distinct and pronounced 

 features which enabled Dr. Ule, rightly or wrongly, 

 to separate it from the Manihot Glaziovii and to 

 bracket it with the M. heptaphylla and M. piauhy- 

 ensis as one of the trio of new Manihots. Subse- 

 quently I found that the official records respecting 

 the history of this experimental plantation justified 



