Remarks on the Flora of Ceylon. 227 



coast of Ceylon, and which is now so generally cultivated along the 

 shores of all intertropical countries, is essentially a sea-side plant, 

 and has as good claims to be considered indigenous to Ceylon as to 

 any other part of the world. The same observations that apply to 

 the shrubs of our shores, apply also to the herbaceous vegetation. 



The great flat tract which extends between the sea-shore and the 

 central mountain range, is possessed of a very extensive Flora, but as 

 its general character is stamped by a few species which are very 

 numerous in individuals, it is to them chiefly that my remarks will ex- 

 tend. In this tract a very great proportion of the species are identi- 

 cal with those of similar ones on the coasts of Coromandel and 

 Malabar. The generally arid nature of its soil, together with its 

 much drier climate than that of the interior, is well shown in the 

 Northern Province, especially by the more wiry and stunted nature of 

 the trees and bushes, their prickly stems and branches, and the 

 smaller size of their leaves, together with a much greater proportion 

 of fleshy shrubs such as Euphorbias, &c. The species which pro- 

 ponderate in individuals in the Northern Province are different kinds 

 of Acacia, mostly very thorny, the wood apple (Feronia Elephantum), 

 Limonia alata, Salvadora Persica (the true Mustard tree of Scripture, 

 a tree which extends northward and westward to the Holy Land, 

 and which I was the first to point out as a native of Ceylon), Ca- 

 rissa spinarum, Gmelina asiatica, Pleurostylia Wightii, Eugenia 

 bracteata, Elceodendron Roxburghii, Ochna squarrosa, Cassia fistula, 

 Cassia Roxburghii, and Memycelon tinctoria. These are chiefly 

 shrubs and small trees. The large trees, which are mostly of no 

 great size, are two or three species of Terminalia, Bassia longifolia, 

 the Margosa (Azadirachta indica), the satin wood (Cloroxylon 

 Swietenia), the Ceylon Oak (Schleicheia trijugaj, the Tamarind 

 (Tamarindus indica), and the Palmyra (Borassus fiabelliformisj , 

 which is particularly abundant on the peninsula of Jaffna.* The 



* Since the above was written, I have made a most important addition to 

 the trees of this region, and, indeed, to the Flora of the Island, in the shape 

 of the far-famed Upas tree of Java and the Moluccas (Antiaris toxicaria) ; 

 having discovered some fine large trees of it a few miles to the eastward of 

 Kornegalle, early in August of the present year (1847). This discovery, 

 proves how little the investigation of the vegetable productions of Ceylon has 

 hitherto been attended to. — G. G. 



