120 FJLORA INDICA. 



A dense forest clothes all the humid southern and western 

 parts of the island, composed of plants eminently character- 

 istic of Malabar. The vegetation of the upper and lofty dis- 

 tricts is more mixed with temperate forms, and is extremely 

 luxuriant, containing many, and indeed composed almost ex- 

 clusively, of the species of the great Peninsular chain. Be- 

 sides the mountain-slopes being covered with dense forests, 

 there are open and undulating lofty table-lands which appear, 

 like those of the Nilghiri and Khasia, to be clothed with large 

 clumps of shrubs, swards of grass, and a rich herbaceous ve- 

 getation, the large trees being contined to the ravines. In 

 these places, Ternstrcemiacece, Rhododendron arboreum, Vac- 

 cinia, Gaultheria, Symploci, Michelia, Goughia, and Gomphan- 

 dra, seem as frequent as they are on analogous elevations of 

 the continental ranges. 



Though the Flora of Ceylon (which probably does not con- 

 tain 3000 phsenogamic plants) is on the whole identical with 

 that of the peninsula, it presents a considerable number of 

 endemic species, and a few genera, especially tropical ones, 

 which are not found in the peninsula. Billeniacece, Anonacem, 

 Garciniacea, Balsaminete, are all abundant in Ceylon. Its 

 most remarkable deficiencies are Scitaminece, Oaks, Willow, 

 Nipia, Gnetum, Pinus, Podocarpus, Cycas. It presents also but 

 few Palms : amongst these the most conspicuous are Cocoa- 

 nut (cultivated only), Corypha umbraculifera, Borassus flabel- 

 liformis, Phoenix farinifera, Caryota wens, an Arenga, A^-eca, 

 and several Calami. This is a remarkably small number, 

 when the Plora is contrasted with the Malayan*. 



The Cingalese Flora has been investigated by a succession 

 of industrious botanists, but no attempt at an enumeration of 



* The adaptation of the soil and climate of the lowest and hottest parts of 

 Ceylon to the ripening of grapes, is a most remarkable fact connected with the 

 cultivation of the vine. Mr. Edgar Layard (whose zoological researches in 

 Ceylon are so weU known and appreciated) informs us that at Jaffna, at the 

 northern extreme, the grape is grown successfully. The cold weather or north- 

 east monsoon sets in there early in Novemher, and the " sweet water" fruits 

 in May and in October, and the "black cluster" in September; after fruitini', 



