356 The Forests and Waste Lands of Ceylon. 



where they are more sheltered, other species, which are less robust 

 and which are the same as those found in forests at the same eleva- 

 tion, are able to live and to reproduce themselves. 



In the backward state of the survey of the island it is not yet 

 possible to state the area of the real forests, but they cannot much 

 exceed 5000 square miles, although a larger area is, for the present, 

 set aside for reservation, which includes stretches of scrub and 

 patana englobed within the forests. The most important belt of 

 forest stretches from the Northern Province, mostly between the 

 centre line of the island and the east coast down to the Hambantota 

 District, but important blocks are also found scattered over the rest 

 of the island, chiefly in the Puttalam District of the North-western 

 Province and in the upper hills, but also in the Kurunegala District 

 ■of the North-western Province, in the Western, Southern, and 

 Sabaragamuwa Provinces, where are still to be found, in isolated 

 blocks, the remains of what was at one time the extensive Sinha 

 Raja Forest. 



The vegetation of the forests varies especially according to rain- 

 fall and elevation, and the forests can be classified according to 

 the following zones and subzones : — 



•p . r Z .' (Arid zone. Rainfall 35 to 50 inches. 



. ,35 7 f Dry zone proper. Rainfall 50 to 70 inches. 



Intermediate zone. Rainfall 70 to 80 inches, 



_ . r e „ z ° ne . s " , f Low country zone from sea-level to 4000 feet. 

 Rainfall 80 inches ^ Mountain z " one above feet 



and more. ) 



The Dry Zone. — This includes about three-fifths of the island, 

 viz., the whole of the Northern, North Central, and Eastern 

 Provinces, the Puttalam District and portion of the Kurunegala 

 and Chilam Districts, the North-western Province, the northern part 

 of the Central Province, about two-thirds of the Province of Uva, the 

 Hambantota District of the Southern Province, and the Kolonna 

 Korale of the Province of Sabaragamuwa. The Western Province 

 is therefore the only one of which no portion enters in the dry zone. 



The Arid Zone occupies the North-western end of the island in 

 the Puttalam, Mannar, and Jaffna Districts, and the South-eastern 

 in the Hambantota District. The characteristic trees and shrubs of 

 this subzone are Salvadora persica, Azima tetracantha, and Acacia 

 eburnea near the coast, and Acacia planifrons on the island of 

 Mannar.* The woody vegetation is usually shrubby and thorny, 

 being represented by Carissa spinosum, Zizyphus Jujuba, Z. 

 (Enoplia, Z. rugosa, Randia dumetorum, Flacourtia Ramontchi, &c. 



* Acacia Sundra is also found in the Puttalam and Hambantota 

 Districts, Albizzia amara in the Mannar District, and Strychnos 

 potatorum not far from the sea. 



