480 Mr. George Lewis on a 



into the higher branches, and large sheets of bark were 

 thrown down onto my cloth. In four or five hours I 

 obtained about eighty species of Coleoptera, but this was 

 the only good tree it was my fortune to find in the inter- 

 mediate or low country. On the sand-banks of the river 

 I obtained some nice Geodephafja, Selina Wcstermanni, 

 Planetes, and others which will probably come into new 

 genera, and some Staphylinidce, the latter mainly agree- 

 ing with the " up-country " species. 



The Bombax, or cotton tree, remarkable for its straight 

 stem and vigorous parallel branches, is a good tree when 

 dead for bark species, and is deciduous, giving large red 

 flowers in February before the leaves appear. It grows 

 up to an altitude of 1500 to 2000 feet, but not higher. 

 A large black species of Elateridce is especially attached 

 to it. The cacao tree {Theohroma cacao), the tender 

 leaves of which hardly bear a breath of wind, is culti- 

 vated near Peradeniya with fair success. The low grass 

 and herbage under the trees in the garden was not too 

 rank to permit sweeping, and I took a great many phyto- 

 phagous insects in my net. 



Section III. — In the Dikoya and Bogawantalawa dis- 

 tricts, where I spent most of my time, on the " Hadley " 

 and "Lynford" estates respectively, most of the land 

 has been cleared of jungle, and is now under cultivation 

 for coffee and chinchona. Jungle-belts are left here and 

 there as a protection in the south-west monsoon, and 

 also on the mountain ridges to insure an abundant rain- 

 fall. When the jungle or forest is to be cleared for 

 planting, it is cut down in October and left till February, 

 and then burnt after the longest interval of rain. The 

 trunks of the largest trees are not consumed by the fire, 

 nor are their stum23S uprooted ; both are simply left 

 among the coffee, and, many being of iron-wood and 

 other hard kinds, it is likely they will remain much in 

 the condition of to-day for the next fifty years. The 

 time between the felling of a new clearing and the burn- 

 ing is the coleopterist's best chance for collecting, but 

 even after the fire a large number of insects infest the 

 logs where bark happens to remain, or fungi and boleti 

 grow out from the crevices in the timber. After some 

 years the hard clean trunks, bleached by the sun, are 

 impervious alike to the attacks of insects and the changes 

 of the seasons. The thermometer there generally ranges 

 about 56° to 58° at 6 a.m., and in the afternoon rises to 



