ON THE FLORA OF CEYLON. 829 
composed of endemic species, and not a few endemic genera. And 
it is another remarkable and significant fact, with regard to these, 
that their affinities and near alliances are with the plants of the 
Malay Islands and Peninsula far more than with the flora of 
Southern India. 1is is especially seen in the abundance of 
) 
remarkably characteristic of the Malayan flora. But I am not in 
ava eee dealing with the geographical affinities of Ceylon vege- 
“The low moist region under consideration may well include the 
lower hills of the central mountain mass up b 0 ft. 
Above that elevation vere is sa little paddy cultivation, nor any 
Coco-nut or Areca Palms. The characteristic flora of the hills 
themselves sasoals commences below 5 , and we have thus an 
intermediate belt of from 3000-5000 ft. of a Tensitianal character. 
, in 
completely natural state, uncultivated and niababited: indeed it 
was not until some years after that event that the pioneers of coffee- 
tation : in plantations made the first gaps in the then unbroken 
sheet of primeval montane forest. How rapidly and to what an 
were made, houses built, and a numerous population of Europeans and 
Indian coolies ssscaian ‘together. From this development of British 
enterprise it was especially the belt of forest from 3000-5000 ft. that 
suffered; even the crests of the hills within its limits were not spared, 
but all cleared, and at the present time very little forest exists, the 
more sharply defined than was naturally and originally the case. 
In reality the transition is doubtless ae aig but there is now no 
part where this can be well traced, save perhaps on the S.W. slopes 
of Adam’s Peak, where on the h lower hills there still remain some 
countries has roe Me eee of these the most conspicuous are 
annual Composite, som which oceur in vast a undance, as the 
White-weed oases con), ysis, - Spanish N eedle (Bidens com- 
posita), Gnaphalium indicum, and Erigeron tine Fame fow 
remaining strips of forest show a very great varie ty of species ; 
characteristic trees are the Duns (Doona eeper ey? sy rect &e.), 
y: 
strongly recalling the artistic Stone-Pine of Italy. Many species of 
Babs ( aie hee are found here, and other damp-loving plants ; 
