PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 



The rapid exhaustion of the first edition has given the author 

 an opportunity of enlarging and fully revising the work, the book 

 being now considerably increased in size. Some of the chapters 

 have been entirely re-written and extended, and several new 

 features have been added, among these being the following subjects: 

 Use of explosives in agriculture, inter-crops and catch-crops, dry- 

 farming, intensive or French gardening, sericulture, lac-culture, 

 selections of trees, plants, etc., for cemeteries or memorial purposes, 

 selection of Ceylon indigenous plants, poisonous plants, sacred trees, 

 remarkable or curious seeds and fruits, insectivorous, fly-catching, 

 and myrmecophilous plants. The illustrations also have been 

 almost doubled in number. 



I have to express my indebtedness especially to MESSRS. JOHX 

 PARKIN, M.A., N. C. ROLT, and C. DRIEBERG, B.A., for valuable 

 assistance and suggestions; also to MESSRS. R. N. LYXE, Director 

 of Agriculture, for kind encouragement; C. H. KXOWLES, B.SC., 

 Superintendent of Agriculture, Fiji; GEO. BRYCE, B.SC.; and J. W. 

 IRWIX, of Coorg, for a photograph of coffee cultivation. For the 

 loan of some excellent blocks, I have to thank MESSRS. SUTTOX 

 & Soxs, Reading; RYDER & Soxs, St. Albans; BROWX & Co. and 

 WALKER & Soxs, LTD., Colombo. 



H. F. M. 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, 



Peradcniya, 



May, 12th, 1914. 



