114 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [YOL. XII. 



duced : as Te (tea), Camellia thea ; Kokoa (cacao), Theobroma 

 cacao. Comparatively a small number of species of plants 

 appear under the last two categories, as so many have at 

 one time or other been imported to the Island from various 

 foreign lands, and the nature of the imaginative power is 

 such that similarities are easily struck out between any one 

 plant and another, and a plant introduced is almost always 

 associated with its counterpart in the Island. As an example, 

 if we take the common native plants, say, the food products, 

 it is no easy task to find plants without their rata associate : 

 as Wi (paddy), Oryza sativa ; Kos (jak), Artocarpus integri- 

 folia ; Pol (cocoanut), Cocos nucifera; Batala (sweet potato), 

 Batatas edulis ; Me (bean), Phaseolus vulgaris. All have 

 their rata counterparts. 



Habit. 



A certain class of terminations employed in the naming of 

 plants divide them into three great divisions according to 

 their habits, — gas," trees," ivel, ".creepers," and paid, "herbs," 

 respectively. Examples of this class are numerous, but I 

 may mention here Kos-gaha (jak tree), Me-wela (bean 

 creeper), Tampala (Amarantus). 



In the paid class the term is frequently omitted : as 

 Aswenna (Alyssicarpus monilifers), But, on the other hand, 

 when a plant is a tree or a creeper, the terms gaha and wela 

 are seldom or never omitted. 



As most of the common herbs of Ceylon are edible in one 

 form or other, the term paid has come to be used as a 

 general term. 



Sometimes plants possessing more or less similar forms 

 are found as trees and creepers, when the terms gas and ivel 

 always serve to distinguish them : as Gas-keppettiya {Groton 

 lacciferurri), Wel-keppettiyd (C.aromaticum); Gas-ruk-attana 

 (Alstonia scholaris), Wel-ruk-attana (Allamanda cathar- 

 tica), &c. 



Situation. 



The site of growth is also expressed by various prefixes 

 attached to the names. Thus, we have plants beginning their 



