I860.] REVIEW. S3 



Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylanice. An Enumeration of Ceylon 

 Plants. By G. U. K. Thwaites, F. L. S., Director of the 

 Royal Botanic Garden, Peradenia^ Ceylon. London : William 

 Pamplin. 



The following account of this interesting island is from the 

 'Colombo Overland Observer^: — 



" The area of Ceylon being about 25,000 square miles, tbe population 

 to tbe square mile is about seventy for the whole island. But the propor- 

 tion varies exceedingly, according to the nature of the soU and the climate. 

 In the Western Province, with its fertile soil, its fine climate and its com- 

 mercial advantages (more than four-fifths of the commerce of the Island 

 being conducted at the Port of Colombo), we have, in an area less than 

 one-sixth of the Island, nearly one-third of its population : the rate to the 

 square mile being about 148. The Eastern Province, on the other hand, 

 although it boasts of the magnificent harbour of Trincomalee, the rich rice- 

 fields of Batticaloa, and fine forests of timber, does not contain 16 inhabi- 

 tants to the square mile. The Western Province is 3,830 miles in extent, 

 and contains more than 560,000 inhabitants; while the Eastern Province, 

 with its ruined tanks and feverish wastes, has only 74,000 inhabitants to 

 an area of 4,753 miles. The Northern Province, the largest in the Island, 

 contains a larger proportion of depopulated wastes than even the Eastern. 

 Where once the great city of Anooradhapoora stood, and where Dootoo- 

 gamino reigned over a teeming population, fever and silence now brood 

 over the ruins of former opulence. The mainland portion of the Northern 

 Province is still more scantily peopled even than the Eastern ; but the 

 character of the whole Province is redeemed by the beautiful little Penin- 

 sula at its northern end, conquered from the sea by the coral insects, 

 covered in many parts with rich red soil, and peopled at a rate rising from 

 70 to the square mile at the end where the Eiu'opean planters are culti- 

 vating Cocoa-nuts, to 1,000 where the Tamils, by the aid of a hot sun and 

 ceaseless irrigation, raise teemmg crops of Grain, Tobacco, Chillies, Onions, 

 Yams, Plantains, and Oranges. The extent of the Northern Province is 

 no less than 5,427 miles, the population 299,795, of whom probably five- 

 sixths are concentrated on the small peninsula and islets which face the 

 extreme southern point of Continental India. The rate of population to 

 the square mile is about 55. Next to the Northern, the Central Province 

 is the largest, and, in view of the fact that it is th'e scene where the great 

 Coffee-growing pursuit has been chiefly developed, it may perhaps be re- 

 garded as the most important. Unfitted for the growth of the Cocoa-nut, 



