ween LETTERS. 
THE RESEARCH STATION OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS 
OF CEYLON. 
I SHOULD like in a few words to call the attention of American botanists 
to the new research station which is now almost completed in these gardens, 
and to: the advantages which are offered here to botanists desiring to work in 
the tropics. A more detailed account of the establishment under my charge, 
with plan of the new laboratory, will be found in Mature of November 9, 
1899. 
The Royal Botanic Gardens of Ceylon form a department of the public 
service, dating from 1812. In 1821 the headquarters were established at 
Peradeniya, a suburb of Kandy, from the center of which town the garden is 
about four miles distant. There are several good hotels in Kandy, and the 
gardens can be reached by rail or road ; a bicycle is perhaps the most con- 
venient, and will be found very useful in traveling in the island, the roads 
being on the whole excellent. The garden lies ina very beautiful situation, 
in very mountainous country, at an elevation of 1550 feet above the sea. 10 
this fortunate circumstance the garden owes the great advantage in the matter 
of climate and healthiness that it possesses over most other tropical stations. 
The nights here are always cool, and the neighborhood of Kandy is practically 
free of malarial fevers, so that with reasonable care no risk of health need be 
been between 65° and 82°, The annual rainfall is about ninety inches, fairly 
evenly distributed over the year; the wettest periods are in June and July 
and in November and December, at the beginnings of the southwest and 
northeast monsoons respectively. On the whole, the best time to visit Ceylon 
is from October to March ; but once here the climate is much the same all 
the year round, the objection to coming from Europe in the summer being 
the heat in the Red Sea and the discomfort of returning to a cold climate 7 
winter. 
€ area of the garden is 150 acres: it contains a splendid collection of 
tropical plants, and is arranged like an English park, with wide lawns. ‘? 
the center lie the buildings of the museum, library, herbarium, and labora- 
tory, close together. The museum is chiefly devoted to economic botany, 
202 [MARCH 
