NO. 53.— 1902.] TREES AND FLOWERING PLANTS. W 



worthy of remark that size of timber or density in no way 

 follows a rich soil, as, for example, one of the finest forests 

 in Sabaragamuwa is in a poor sandy soil, constantly bathed 

 with heavy rains, and possessing no special shelter from the 

 wind. 



Parts of the Ratnapura District might be described as 

 patana country and grass land, the locality most conspicuous 

 for this change in the vegetation being to the north and east 

 of the Walawe river after it breaks away from the great 

 forest basin extending from Bambarabotuwa to Detenagalla 

 mountain. , 



A typical patana country within Sabaragamuwa is re- 

 presented by the beautiful Horton Plains that are at the 

 head waters of the Bilihul-oya at an altitude of about 7,000 

 feet above the sea. Lower down, to the east and south-east 

 of Balangoda, the true grass country is more pronounced, 

 with its typical forms of trees, such as Careya arborea, 

 Phyllanthus Emblica, and Terminalia Chebula, till it 

 blends with the dry zone areas on the one side, or the 

 intermediate zone, as the case may be. 



Most of the original vegetation of the country has been 

 cleared away by human agency, so that it is now impossible 

 to trace what at one time was the limit of the forests 

 covering the two great Provinces under review. The vast 

 extent of cocoanut land, followed by land in tea, and these 

 enormously supplemented by what is called " chena land," 

 has taken up probably fully two-thirds of both Provinces, 

 so that anything like a continuous area of unbroken timber 

 land is not to be found. Several very large forests still 

 exist, notably the wilderness of the Peak, but large as these 

 are they can now only form a fraction of what must 

 have existed in ancient times. Of the large forests still 

 remaining, we have the Sinha Raja extending in a very 

 broken form through the Pasdun Korale in the Kalutara 

 District into the Kukulu Korale in Sabaragamuwa, the 

 Peak wilderness and the great belt on the south of the 

 Peak to Totapola range, the Panilla and Illambekanda forests, 



