343 



Contributions towards a Flora of Ceylon. By George 

 Gardner, F.L.S., Superintendent of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kandy, 



Under the above title it is my intention to give, from time 

 to time, a series of articles preparatory to the publication of 

 a Flora of the whole island, the materials for which I am 

 now elaborating. They will chiefly consist of descriptions of 

 such obscure or new genera and species as may turn up dur- 

 ing my investigation, and which may be considered worthy 

 of more immediate publication. It is not a little astonishing 

 that the Botany of this island should be less known than that 

 of almost any part of the continent of India, especially when 

 it is known that a Botanic Garden has been kept up in it by 

 Government for upwards of thirty years, under the superin- 

 tendence of individuals who, we must suppose, were consi- 

 dered by those with whom the appointment lay, to be in every 

 respect competent to fulfil the duties connected with such an 

 institution. In place of this, I find that, with the exception 

 of my immediate predecessor, who, however, never did any 

 thing for Botany, the whole of the others were common gar- 

 deners. It is not then to be wondered at that hitherto the 

 science of Botany, as connected with the Gardens at least, 

 should have aimed at little higher than the cultivation of 

 cabbages. There is, however, one name among those four 

 which stands out in bold relief from the others, that of Mr. 

 Moon, the founder of the present Garden, who, in the year 

 1824, published a " Catalogue of Ceylon Plants," the only 

 work entirely devoted to the Botany of the island which has 

 been published since the " Flora Zeylanica" of Linnaeus 

 appeared in 1747. Considering the difficulties under which 

 Mr. Moon laboured, principally from the want of a library, 

 that belonging to the Garden being then, as it still is, very 

 limited indeed, he deserves much credit. It must be con- 

 fessed, however, that mere catalogues of plants such as this 



