110 SOUTHERX AXD CENTRAL PROVI^X'ES. [rARX VjI. 



employed the Siiriya {Hibiscus j^opidneus), ^vliose broad 

 umbrageous leaves and delicate yellow flowers impart 

 a delicious coolness, and give to the streets of Galle 

 and Colombo the fresh and enhvening aspect of walks 

 in a garden. 



Li the towns, however, the suriya is productive of one 

 serious inconvenience. It is the resort of a hairy greenish 

 caterpillar ^, longitudinally striped, which frequents it in 

 great numbers, and at a certain stage of its growth 

 descends by a silken thread to the ground and hurries 

 away, probably in search of a suitable spot in which to 

 ]Dass through its metamorphosis. Should it happen to 

 alight, as it often does, upon some lounger below, and 

 find its way to his unprotected skin, it inflicts, if molested, 

 a sting as pungent, but far more lasting, than that of a 

 nettle or a star-fish. 



Attention being thus directed to the quarter whence 

 the assailant has lowered himself doAvn, the catei-pillars 

 above will be found in clusters, sometimes amounting 

 to hundreds chnging to the branches and the bark, with 

 a few stragghng over the leaves or suspended from 

 them by fines. These pests are so annojdng to children 

 as weU as destructive to the fofiage, that it is often 

 necessary to singe them ofi" the trees by a flambeau 

 raised on the extremity of a pole ; and as they faU to 

 the ground they are eagerly devom^ed by the crows and 

 domestic fowls.'*^ 



With the exception of the old chm'ch built by tlie 

 Netherlands East India Company, the town of Galle 



' The species of motli viiih. which 

 it is identified has not yet been de- 

 tennined, but it most probably be- 

 longs to a section of Boisduval's 

 genus Bomb^'x near Cuethocanipa 

 Stephens. 



^ Another catei-piUar wliich feeds 

 on the jasniine-fldwering Carissa, 

 stingrs with such fiirv that I have 



■with fleshy spines on the upper sm-- 

 face, each of which seems to be 

 charged with the venom that occa- 

 sions this acute suffering. Tlie moth 

 which this cat ei-pilhir produces, Kecpi-a 

 lepida, Cramer; Limacodes f/raciosa, 

 "VVestw., lias darlc brown ■s\-ings, the 

 primaiT traversed by a broad green 

 band. It is common in the Western 



known a gentleman to shod tears side of Oylon. The larvoe of tlie 

 while the pain was at its height. It genus AdoUa are also hairy, and sting 

 is short and broad, of a pale gi-een, | with virulence. 



