APPENDIX I. 



A. 



Key to the Orders, Genera, and Aberrant Species of 

 Ceylon Flowering Plants. 



It is assumed that those for whose aid in identifying the 

 flowering plants of Ceylon the following Key is intended 

 are so far instructed in the elements of botany as to be 

 familiar with the principles of classification, with the 

 characters of the classes Dicotyledons, Monocotyledons, and 

 Gymnosperms, with the principal organs of flowering plants, 

 and with the technical terms ordinarily used in describing 

 them.* 



These acquirements would not, however, suffice to enable 

 any one ignorant of Indian botany to make much use of 

 this Hand-book, from the absence in it of subdivisions of the 

 dicotyledons and monocotyledons, and from the fact that 

 many of the genera present some characters foreign to the 

 orders in which they are placed, but to which they, not- 

 withstanding, belong by right of affinity. Added to this is 

 the fact that the Ceylon Flora is, for its extent, a fragmentary 

 one, certain orders represented in India by many genera, and 

 certain genera b)' many species in India, being represented 

 in Ceylon by single or very few genera and species, and 

 these often being aberrant in one or more characters. . In 

 evidence of the above I find that, out of the total of 149 

 orders, 49 are represented by single genera, and 23 by only 

 two genera ; and that, of the remaining 77 orders, 65 include 

 one or more genera with aberrant species. One instance of 

 the latter may suffice ; it is the order Ranunculacece, which is 

 normally polypetalous. It is represented in Ceylon by five 



* Those who have not these acquirements are recommended to pro- 

 cure and study ' Oliver's First Book of Indian Botany,' with numerous 

 illustrations. (Macmillan & Co.) 



PART v. Y 



