230 Remarks on the Flora of Ceylon. 



nature than those below, the grasses which are peculiar to them 

 grow more closely together, and are smaller and more wiry in their 

 texture ; while the shrubs which are scattered through them are prin- 

 cipally species of Hedyotis, and Osbeckia, the latter producing beau- 

 tiful large rose-coloured flowers. 



The two thousand feet which succeed to these include the most 

 elevated portions of the island, and embrace chiefly the mountain-tops, 

 and the vallies or plains which divide them from each other. The 

 vegetation of this region has still a more alpine aspect than the pre- 

 ceding one, and of all the others is that which is possessed of the 

 greatest interest to the botanist, from the great number of European 

 forms that are mixed up with those whose range does not extend 

 beyond the tropics. The tree that first claims our attention in this 

 range is the Rhododendron, not only from its great beauty, but from 

 its vast abundance especially in the open plains, which during the 

 months of June and July are clouded with red from the great profu- 

 sion of its blossoms. I have met with two well-marked varieties, if 

 they are not, indeed, distinct species of this tree. One of them is 

 principally met with in the plains or in their wooded margins, and is 

 easily recognised by the rusty-coloured under side of its leaves. 

 This is the variety which is so common on the open plains of the 

 Neilgherry range of mountains in the peninsula of India. The other 

 variety, so far as I am aware, is peculiar to Ceylon, and is always 

 found in the forest, and at a greater elevation than the other. It is 

 distinguished by its greater size, and the silvery under side of its 

 leaves, which are besides narrow and rounded at the base, not broad 

 and cordate as in the other. Several fine trees of this variety occur 

 on the ascent of Pedrotalagalla from Newera-Ellia, and close to the 

 temple on the summit of Adam's Peak; but the finest I have met 

 with in my excursions among the mountains of the interior, was in 

 crossing over Totapella, where there is a large forest of them, many 

 of which are from fifty to seventy feet in height, and with stems 

 more than three feet in diameter. In these forests are also to 

 be met with some four or five species of Michelia, the representatives 

 of the Magnolias of North America, several arboreous Myrtacea, and 

 not a few Ternstrcemiaceae, the most common of which is the 

 Camellia- like Gordonia Ceylanica. 





