102 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. [PART I. 



But that which cannot fail to arrest the attention even of 

 an indifferent passer-by is the endless variety and almost 

 inconceivable size and luxuriance of the climbing plants 

 and epiphytes that live upon the forest trees in every 

 part of the island. It is rare to see one without 

 its families of dependents of this description, and on 

 one occasion I counted on a single prostrate stem no less 

 than sixteen species of Capparis, Beaumontia, Bignonia, 

 Ipomoea, and other genera, which the tree, in its fall, 

 had brought along with it to the ground. Those that 

 are free from climbing plants have their higher branches 

 and hollows occupied by ferns and orchids, of which 

 latter the variety is endless in Ceylon, though the beauty 

 of the flowers is not equal to those of Brazil and other 

 tropical countries. In the many excursions that I 

 made with Dr. Gardner he added numerous species 

 to those already known, including the exquisite Sac- 

 colabium guttatum, which we came upon in the vicinity 

 of Bintenne, but it had before been discovered 

 in Java and the mountains of northern India. Its 

 large groups of lilac flowers hung in rich festoons 

 from the branches as we rode under them, and caused 

 us many an inconvenient halt to admire and secure 

 the plants. 



G. sylvestre, to which has been given j not from the juices being susceptible 

 the name of the Ceylon cow-tree ; and j of being used as a substitute for milk, 

 it is asserted that the natives drink I but simply from its resemblance to it 

 its juice as we do milk. LOTTDOX in colour and consistency. It is a 

 (Ency. of Plants, p. 197) says, "The creeper, found on the southern and 



western coasts, and used medicinally 

 by the natives, but never as an article 

 of food. The leaves, when chopped 

 and boiled, are administered to nurses 



,.of 

 of 1 



milk of the G. lactiferum is used 

 instead of the vaccine ichor, and the 

 leaves are employed in sauces in the 

 room of cream." And LINDLEY, in 



his Vegetable Kingdom, in speaking of j by native practitioners, and are sup- 

 the Asclepiads, says, "the cow plant \ posed to increase the secretion of milk, 

 of Ceylon, ' kiri-anguna,' yields a milk > As to its use, as stated by Loudon, 

 of which the Singhalese make use in lieu of the vaccine matter, it is al- 

 for food, and its leaves are also used together erroneous. MOON, in his 

 when boiled." Even in the English j Catalogue of the Plants of Ceylon,}>.2l, 

 Cyclopedia of CHARLES KNIGHT, j has accidentally mentioned the kiri- 

 published so lately as 1854, this error anguna twice, 'being misled by the 

 is repeated. (See art. Cow-tree, p. Pali synonym " kiri-hangula " : they 

 178.) But this is altogether a mis- are the same plant, though he has 

 take ; the Ceylon plant, like many inserted them as different, 

 others, has acquired its epithet of kiri, \ 



