BPTBMBER, 1911.] ' 



251 



Miscellaneous. 



through February, March and April, 

 limits the growth of air plants hanging 

 from trees, so that in this respect Pera- 

 deniya is not so interesting as Buiten- 

 zorg, in Java. The "dry season" is, 

 however, not long enough to interfere 

 with the growth of most plants, and 

 nearly all of the trees retain their leaves 

 through this period. It is quite other- 

 wise in the arid districts of northern 

 Ceylon, where a monsoon forest with a 

 considerable number of deciduous trees 

 is the natural plant formation. Pera- 

 deniya, though rather too cool for coco- 

 nuts or Para rubber, has a climate well 

 suited to Castilloa rubber and to tea and 

 chocolate, while palms of nearly all 

 kinds thrive to perfection. 



The garden was not originally laid out 

 according to any system of plant classi- 

 fication, but was rather a beautiful park 

 in which trees were planted for land- 

 scape effect. Now, however, the Direc- 

 tor,* is developing the garden according 

 to systematic plans and making definite 

 groups of plant families. Thus there 

 are at present well-arranged plots de- 

 voted to palms, others to screw pines, 

 others to cycads. It will necessarily be 

 many years before the new plan can be 

 fully carried out, for most of the plants 

 in a tropical garden are trees. Indeed, 

 the herbaceous garden forms but a small 

 part of the whole. 



Here, as in any first-class garden of 

 the tropics, much is very new and 

 strange to the botanist from temperate 

 climes. Palms, screw pines, giant bam- 

 boos, orchids and tree ferns which he 

 has known hitherto only from books or 

 from the puny specimens of the plant 

 house, become the commonplaces of 

 every -day life. The sight of trees of 

 the Composite family, Verbena family 

 and many other groups represented at 

 home only by herbs opens the eyes to 

 some of the real wonders of tropical 

 plant life. An interesting example is 

 that of the "potato tree" belonging to 

 the nightshade family. It does not 

 produce potatoes, but its flower resem- 

 bles that of a potato very much en- 

 larged. At home we think of the night- 

 shade family including only herbs and 

 vines, but in the tropics it includes trees 

 as large as our ordinary shade trees, 

 such as elm and maple. 



Nearly every kind of plant will grow 

 at Peradeniya ; tropical and sub-tropi- 

 cal plants very well indeed ; temperate 

 plants for the most part indifferently 

 well. The latter are, however, taken 

 care of at the mountain garden at Hak- 

 gala where the higher altitude (5,500 



* John C. Willie, m.a. (Cauib.), ik&ft, 



feet) gives them a climate resembling 

 that of western Washington and Oregon. 

 The comparative coolness of tropical 

 highlands is well illustrated by Nuwara 

 Eliya, a resort near Hakgala, where 

 in the hotels a grate tire is lighted 

 nearly every evening throughout the 

 year. 



While an attempt is made to grow in 

 the gardens all of the plants which are 

 native to Ceylon, a great many plants 

 from other parts of the world are also to 

 be seen there. Indeed, the wealth of 

 tropical beauty is here assembled. The 

 flame tree of Madagascar, named from 

 the brilliant colour of the flowers,' is a 

 wondrous sight in March and April, the 

 whole tree being a mass of red which 

 hides the dark-green foliage. From 

 India there is a tree, tSaraca indica, with 

 a profusion of brilliant orange-yellow 

 flowers ; and from tropical America 

 various trees of the genus Brownea, 

 especially interesting because of the 

 graceful clusters of pendant young 

 leaves. The leaves droop when young 

 and tender, thus presenting very little 

 surface for injury by the overhead sun. 

 As they grow older a horizontal position 

 is assumed and the red colour is lost. It 

 is supposed that the red colouring matter 

 acts as a screen which protects the living 

 substance of the young leaves just as 

 the red glass in a photographer's dark- 

 room window protects the sensitive 

 plates from injury by light. 



Among the most interesting plants are 

 the bamboos, of which many different 

 kinds are cultivated, some native, others 

 imported from peninsular India or from 

 other parts of Asia. Some interesting 

 studies have been made at the gardens 

 on the rate of growth of bamboo stems. 

 These spring up almost as if by magic. 

 To measure the growth from day to 

 day no expensive auxanometer is needed, 

 but only a tape measure and a coolie to 

 climb an adjacent tree with the end of 

 the tapd'. A day's growth is measured 

 not in millimeters but in feet or inches. 

 Bamboo stems are hollow, as are most 

 grasses— for bamboos are but grasses — 

 and are wonderfully strong considering 

 the weight and the amount of material 

 in them. Indeed, the principle of the 

 hollow cylinder so well known to 

 engineers was long understood by the 

 Asiatics, who use bamboos for building 

 purposes. 



Of economic plants in the garden there 

 seems almost no end. The balmy breezes 

 of Ceylon may well be spice-laden. 

 Ceylon cinnamon is known the world 

 over. The various peppers, as black 

 pepper, long pepper , betel pepper, are 

 woody climbers. A handsome grove of. 



