Remarks on the Flora of Ceylon. 229 



many species in both that are peculiar to each. The mass of the 

 herbaceous vegetation of both is made up of Ferns, Scitaminece, 

 Urticacece, Cyrtandrece and Composite. One of the most marked 

 features of the second two thousand feet is the existence of large 

 open grassy tracts on the sides of the hills to which the natives give 

 the name of Pattanas. Such tracts extend to the highest parts of the 

 island, differing more or less at different elevations in the nature of 

 their vegetation. Scattered through the lower ones, and giving them 

 an orchard-like appearance, are two trees which are almost peculiar 

 to them. These are the Carey a arbor ea, and Emblica officinalis. 

 The herbaceous vegetation consists of chiefly numerous tall coarse 

 grasses, growing for the most part in tufts, the most common of 

 which is the Lemon-grass (Andropogon Schoenanthus), intermingled 

 with which are several Compositce, principally consisting of several 

 species of Blumea, Knoxia corymbosa, the representative of the old 

 and accurate historian of Ceylon, the bloom-like Atylosia Candollii, 

 and Impatiens Balsamina, the origin of the common garden balsam. 

 It is on the forest land of this tract that the principal coffee estates 

 have been established. 



The next two thousand feet, which brings us to an elevation of 

 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, and into a region which has a 

 much lower temperature than any of the preceding, is still covered 

 with forest having occasional patches of Pattana, but both give sup- 

 port to a very different vegetation. The trees are much smaller, 

 grow closer together, have their stems and branches covered with 

 pendulous masses of lichens and mosses, and many kinds of small 

 Orchidece. Their leaves are mostly small, and their varied tints 

 remind one of the autumnal forests of more temperate climes. The 

 under-vegetation consists of numerous species of beautiful harbaceous 

 and suffruticose Balsams (Impatiens), a great variety of suffruticose 

 Acanthacece (Nilu), beautiful and delicate Ferns of all sizes, from 

 those scarcely a few inches in height, to tree ones, which throw up 

 their stems surmounted by large masses of verdant fronds to an ele- 

 vation often of twenty feet, and rivalling in gracefulness the Palms 

 of the low country. It is in this range that the lovely tree, Rhodo- 

 dendron, which is so common in more elevated tracts, first makes its 

 appearance. The Pattanas at this elevation are more spongy in their 



