39 



profuse llowcring the whole i)atch begins tfj wither and ripen t(j 

 seed — a process which takes several months or even a year 

 (whence ripe seed is rarely found in herbariums), and then dies 

 down. There is probably a patch to be found flowering some- 

 where in the mountains every year. The wood is hard but brittle, 

 with a large pith and makes very good fuel, and the flowers are 

 often beautiful." 



The height given by Trimen is sometimes exceeded. We 

 estimated the average height of one patch at twelve feet, and 

 measured one plant of sixteen feet. 



All this underbrush makes a very dense interior and once 

 within the forest all view of it is shut off completely. In the 

 deepest and shadiest ravines there are small tree ferns ten feet 

 high or less. 



In the original forest the smaller plants must be confined 

 chiefly to shaded rock outcrops and to the immediate vicinity of 

 streams. They are found most easily along the paths cut 

 through the forests. These are nearly always on the hillsides 

 and consequently have a vertical face as well as a little strip of 

 flat ground. Here the ground is covered with numerous small 

 species, including Viola serpens, with a flower like our V. striata; 

 a melastome, Osbeckia sp., with a flower like a wild rose; a smaller 

 melastome, Sonerila zeylanica; some leafy liverworts and mosses, 

 and various small ferns of various form and genera. 



The flat valley in which Nuwara Eliya is located is largely 

 treeless and occupied by gently rolling meadows which appear 

 as if artificially cleared. These meadows are a part of the 

 peculiar formation known in Ceylon as patanas. The first of 

 these are found near Nuwara Eliya and towards the south and 

 east from that place they occupy ever increasing proportions of 

 the land. At this altitude they are mostly in virgin condition 

 and offer interesting opportunities to the plant ecologist. 



The first patana which we visited is called Moon Plains, 

 lying some four miles east of Nuwara Eliya. Ascending a 

 winding path through a tea estate, one catches occasional glimpses 

 of the open plain ahead, and finally comes out at one end of the 

 patana, some hundred feet above it, and with its whole area in 



