2H 



JOURNAL, B.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XIX. 



fully established, and the reputation of one of the most important 

 of Eastern seaports redeemed from reproach. 



Botany and Agriculture. 



To deal adequately with this very important and extensive 

 subject would require a separate full address. Suffice to notice 

 the formation of the Agricultural Society of Ceylon towards the 

 end of 1904 by our present Governor as one of the most notable 

 and important events within our record. Numerous branch 

 societies (now numbering 42) in the different Provinces and 

 districts of the Island have already been formed, and the member- 

 ship of the parent Societjr is 1,035, and is growing every month, 

 almost every week and day. It should eventually embrace every 

 planter and intelligent agriculturist worthy of the name in the 

 Island. An Agricultural calendar arranged for each month of 

 the year and for the hill as well as low-country is the latest evidence 

 of the enterprise of the energetic Secretary (Mr. Denham), who 

 has had the assistance of the best local authorities in what, when 

 printed in the vernaculars as in English, must prove of great use 

 to all who take an interest in garden or field work throughout the 

 Island. Mr. Herbert Wright's Manual on " Para Rubber, with 

 illustrations," soon to appear in a second and enlarged edition, 

 deserves a word of mention. In his Presidential Address on 16th 

 December, 1881, Mr. (now Sir Charles) Bruce, G.C.M.G., made the 

 following reference : — " The paramount influence of agriculture 

 on the prosperity of this Colony has, to a great extent, removed 

 the Department of Botany from the concerns of this Society to 

 more open and more accessible channels of communication and 

 discussion. The past year has been especially marked by the 

 publication of the Tropical Agriculturist, a monthly periodical 

 established by the editors of the Ceylon Observer, constituting in 

 the strictest sense of the word a repertory (repertorium ubi omnia 

 reperiri possint) of information on all subjects connected with 

 tropical botany and agriculture. To its pages as to the report of 

 the Director of the Botanical Gardens all who are interested in 

 this subject will naturally refer for the operations of the year." 



I quote the foregoing in order to mention that the monthly perio- 

 dical referred to (which in the course of twenty -four years acquired 

 a world-wide reputation as representative of everything connected 

 with tropical agriculture) has now been transferred to the very 

 efficient editorial guidance of Dr. Willis, Director of the Botanic 

 Gardens, with competent assistants, and is now known as the 

 Tropical Agriculturist and Journal of the Agricultural Society of 

 Ceylon, and as such is sure to prove more deserving than ever of 

 attention and perusal by all tropical farmers. Of the varied and 

 important work done for agriculture in all branches, and for 

 science, in botany, entomology, mycology, and chemistry, by 

 Dr. Willis and his colleagues at Peradeniya and throughout the 

 Island, in the Botanic Gardens and experimental stations or 

 plantations for different products, it is superfluous to speak. Nor 

 need more than mention be made of the scientific quarterly 



