IN CEYLON. 11 



hot dry country in Ceylon ; and D. sylyatica, Roxb., now 

 only rarely met with in this Island. In 1807 D. Embryop-: 

 teris, Pers.* and in 1827 D. Toposiaj Ham.^ were found, 

 the former first in the East Indies and the latter in Bengal, 

 but both subsequently found in very many parts of Ceylon. 

 Nearly a quarter of a century passed before the next 

 Ceylon species was found, and this discovery D. oyali- 

 f olia, Wight\ was first made in Madras. This was speedily 

 followed by the discovery of D^ pruriens, Dalz.,$ first in 

 Bombay by Dalzell, and subsequently in the Sabaragamuwa 

 Province by Thwaites.|| By that time Dr. Thwaites, then 

 Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, had 

 commenced the work of collecting the plants of Ceylon, and 

 his discovery of D^ pruriens, Dalz., in Ceylon, so soon after 

 that by Dalzell, was followed by the discovery of tenl" 

 species of Diospyros in 1860 : seven of these have not yet 

 been found out of Ceylon, and some of them are at the 

 present time exceedingly rare. The species found were : 

 /. D. crumenata, jD. affinis^. qusesita. D. oocarpaj D^insignis, 



D. oppositif olia,. /D. Gardneri, D. Moonii J >'D. acuta, and D. 



- cittenuata. Since then only one species has been added to 

 the Ceylon group, viz., P. Thwaitesii, by Beddome** in 1871, 

 a form peculiar to this Island. 



Locally, no further original work has been done on the 

 genus Diospyros other than what is represented in Dr. 

 Trimen's " Handbook of the Flora of Ceylon."-^ tf- & ff 



II. DISTRIBUTION IN CEYLON, fal-f/ 



The forest vegetation in Ceylon varies according to the 

 rainfall and elevation, and as far as the genus Diospyros is 

 concerned we may speak of the species as being dry, wet, 



* C. H. Persoon, Synopsis Plantarum, Vol. II., p. 624, 1807. 



f Hamilton. Trans. Linn. Soc., Lond., Vol. XV.. p. 115, 1827. 



J Dr. Wight, Icones Plant. Ind. Orient., t. 1,227, 1850. 



Dalzell, Kew Journal of Botany, Vol. IV., p. 110, 1852. 



|| Trimen, Flora of Ceylon, Vol. III., p. 95. 



^ Thwaites, Enum. Plant. Zeyl., pp. 179-182, 1860. 



** Beddome, Ic. PI. Ind. Or., p. 27, t. cxxxv., 1871. 



