Miscellaneous. 



422 



In the vegetable section there was hardly anything worth mentioning in 

 the way of English vegetables, and most of the kinds enumerated in the catalogue 

 were not represented. If people only grew for the show there would have been 

 some good exhibits from Gampola and Kotmalie districts. The absence of such 

 vegetables as lettuce and radish is unaccountable. Collections of native vegetables 

 were well competed for. Beans were poor, and there was no competition 

 to speak of. Cabbages the same ; of beet and knol-knol there was one (and only 

 one) fairly good exhibit ; tomatoes were of good average quality ; cucumbers were 

 fairly good ; onions were poor ; of pumpkins some excellent specimens were shown, 

 on the whole the show of both fruits and vegetables was not satisfactory, and this is 

 attributable (1) to the bad season, and (2) that people evidently did not grow 

 specially for the show. 



C. DR1EBBRG, 

 Superintendent of School Gardens. 



The Weligama Agri- Horticultural Show. 



For a village show this was a decided success, and the Mudaliyar deserves 

 every credit, for he apparently worked single-handed. I was surprised on reaching 

 the shoAV grounds to find how little confusion and noise there was then and 

 the next morning. All details had been evidently attended to in time, and the 

 general arrangement and disposal of exhibits were well carried out. The exhibits 

 on the whole were satisfactory, and the show of native products as good as 

 could have been expected, considering the time of the year. 



Four school gardens competed for prizes. Dampella, Paraduwa, Mirissa, 

 and Maliduwa. The first, third and fourth showed collections of vegetables, 

 while the second exhibited flour prepared from cassava and West Indian arrow- 

 root, as well as a sample of cotton grown in the school garden. The judges 

 awarded first prize to Dampella and the second to Maliduwa. 



Maramba school garden, also in Weligam Korale, made no exhibit. I 

 might mention that my work in this Korale has been helped on considerably by 

 the Mudaliyar. I showed a quarter bushel of Kiushu paddy and also some simple spray 

 ing apparatus for dealing with liquids and powders. The two sprayers were taken 

 over by the Mudaliyar, I understand, for the Local Society. 



Lessons in Elementary Botany. I. 



By J. C. Willis. 

 (Illustrated.) 



In response to many requests, it has been decided to write a very short 

 series of lessons in elementary botany, suitable for Ceylon readers. Not only 

 is botany one of the most fascinating pursuits for leisure hours, more especially 

 in this country where plants can be obtained in growing condition all the year 

 round, but even an elementary acquaintance with some of the simplest facts of 

 the subject may often save the cultivator from mistakes. 



The illustrations used in these lessons are of course of the roughest des- 

 cription, time not permitting of the elaboration of really first-rate drawings ; they 

 are, however, accurate as far as they go. In the majority of cases they aro equally 

 applicable to the plants of " up-country " and of the " low-country ; " but in the 

 few instances where some particular plant has been selected for illustration, that 

 plant is one of the up-country flora. It may be possible at a later date to write 

 a series of botany lessons specially adapted to the low-country. 



