804 ON THE FLORA OF CEYLON. 
many are much more recent and from the West Indies or Tropical 
America. And here the trees commonly found ses the Buddhist 
ey t 
are mostly of foreign origin. Of these the most fnrni liar is the Bo- 
- tree (Ficus religiosa), an object of veneration in itself as being the 
tree under which, sitting in og eR Siddartha attained 
Buddha-hood. I have never seen a tree of this in a situation 
which suggested nativity, and it is ‘inti that the anviads tree at 
Anurdhapura brought from India s.c. 288, and still visited by 
thousands of devotees, is the parent of all the trees i in Ceylon The 
presentation of flowers on the altars being a prominent part of the 
simple worship of the Buddhist, most of the trees punted round 
the temples are such as afford suitable blossoms, yellow or white in 
colour, and by choice sweet-scented. these f bear aia 
is the most familiar, and is universally known as the ‘ Temple 
P 
guese, but I have not met with any record oe this. The flower 
have a delicious if rather asic am odour; the tree never pro- 
duces seed in Ceylon. Another loniies: tree in the temple 
sere is acini Gossypium with very brilliant yellow 
flowers, no doubt an intr roduction from India. The common —— 
Thunbergia alata, the gSorgh r white vinta rosea, the Allamanda, and 
a hundred others, prominent among which is the “ubiquitous 
Fanti from the W. Indies, and a fine Sunflower from Mexi 
Serato diversifolia). All are foreign and by far the greater vat 
from the New World, and many introduced quite recently. This 
the effect of causing a very “uniform character in the ae of 
species able to compete with those ce hebitente of open 
country and plains, which, when once introduced, are thus able to 
rete without hindrance. The rapidity with which some useful or 
is very s e Portuguese came first to Java in 1496, 
four years after the discovery of ge ; and to Ceylon in 1506. 
In 1520 sailed direct from §. America to the a 
American plants were at once S iodn ced there, and it was 
_ these islands that the other Hastern Tropics obtained many of the 
= ed vo oe 
ot be — to say much more about these exotic 
