TORREYA 



February, igi6. 

 Vol. i6 No. 2 



BOTANICAL SKETCHES FROM THE ASIATIC TROPICS 



By Henry Allan Gleason 



IV. CEYLON 



(Continued from January Torreya) 



The shade trees used in the tea gardens at present are almost 

 all Para rubber, Hevea hrasiliensis, and the planter expects to get 

 two crops from the same land. It is doubtful whether this 

 practice is a good one, for even here the altitude is too high for 

 rubber and scarcely high enough for first-class tea. Other 

 species of shade trees have been used in the past, especially 

 Eucalyptus and Grevillea, and a few specimens of them are still 

 remaining. 



After three weeks at the Botanical Garden, we took the train 

 for Nuwara Ellya, the chief summer resort of the English, 

 located near the southern end of the island at an altitude of 

 6,200 feet. 



There are few railway routes which pass through a more 

 picturesque country than the railway from Peradeniya to Nuwara 

 Eliya. For once one does not regret the slow Ceylon trains. 

 Over similar mountain railways in America, the running time 

 would be two hours or at most three, but here it drags out to six. 

 It is a steady climb of about 100 feet per mile all the way. The 

 builders of the railway seem to have had an aversion to bridges 

 and tunnels, so the line winds back and forth on the sides of the 

 mountains, ascends the valleys to their head on one side and 

 returns on the other, and has more curves and loops than any 

 American railroad. 



[No. I, Vol. 16, of Torreya, comprising pp. 1-32, was issued 17 January-, 1916] 



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