September, 1911.] 



258 



Miscellaneous. 



zation. In our own country we do not 

 find "backwoods" close to cities and 

 towns, but must travel a long way from 

 Boston or New York to find the primeval 

 forest. Ceylon, however, like other 

 tropical countries, furnishes examples of 

 jungle in close proximity to the large 

 towns. Indeed, everywhere through- 

 out the island the forest is easily 

 reached, There is no half-way land in 

 Ceylon. That which is needed for roads, 

 gardeus or fields is well cared for ; other 

 land grows up quickly to jungle. Old 

 fields, abandoned a few years, soon 

 become a dense thicket and later a forest. 

 This is well seen at Anuradhapura, one 

 of the ruined cities in the north -central 

 part of the island. Here, the Govern- 

 ment Archaeologists, as they find various 

 parts of buildings such as columns and 

 arches, set them up in place ; but some- 

 times they neglect to clear out the trees 

 for a sufficient distance and their " finds " 

 once more become overturned by 

 growing roots or the stems of gigantic 

 climbers. 



So, where jungle is the rule, and clear- 

 ings have to be protected, it is natural 

 that the botanical gardens should have 

 a patch of jungle. This is situated in 

 the Experiment Station grounds, but 

 easily reached by the visitor. Here may 

 be seen the native trees of the region in 

 their natural condition, and the visitor 

 may get some idea of tropical luxuriance 

 in the large number of species present 

 on even a small tract of ground. It 

 must be said, however, that a visit to 

 this bit of jungle would be, to many 

 visitors, a disappointment, for it is not 

 filled with air plants hanging from the 

 trees nor rendered impenetrable by- 

 interlacing stems of climbing plants. It 

 is, however, much easier to travel 

 through than the jungles at sea level in 

 districts of great heat and humidity. 



The botanist who is interested in 

 ecology— the relatiou of the plant to its 

 environment— is often on the lookout for 

 field and roadside weeds. In temperate 

 regions, particularly in the western 

 United States, roadside weeds make a 

 constant and striking feature of the 

 landscape. This is not the case, as a rule, 

 in the tropics. Indeed, there are not 

 only rather tew weeds, but few flower- 

 ing herbs of any kind. The tropics are 

 a region of big things and the her- 

 baceous plants make little impression on 

 the visitor. At the Peradeniya Garden, 

 the writer noted a small area of perhaps 

 half an acre that had been neglected for 

 a time. Here, although there were many 

 tree seedings started, there was a fairly 

 good patch of weeds — enough to make a 

 lonely American feel quite at home. 



These weeds were chiefly Lantanas and 

 some of our American composites, parti- 

 cularly the fleabane Erigeron and also 

 Conyza. 



It would be difficult to find elsewhere 

 in the world an area the size of Ceylon, 

 or even much larger, with so many 

 different vegetation regions. The differ- 

 ences in these regiuus are brought 

 about largely by the winds which deter- 

 mine the distribution of rainfall and by 

 altitude with consequent temperature 

 changes. The web weather comes with 

 the rains from two different directions. 

 The north-east monsoon commences in 

 October and brings heavy rains through- 

 out the higher parts of the island and in 

 the lowland country of the north-east. 

 A series of rains continues through 

 November and December, with a rather 

 light rainfall during January, February 

 and March. In April the wind changes 

 to south-west and there is more rain, 

 with June especially wet. From then 

 until October the rainfall is again 

 lighter. It will be seen then, that in the 

 highlands it is always moist, but that 

 there are certain districts which have a 

 rather pronounced dry season. The 

 driest parts of the island are in the 

 north and the south or north-west and 

 south-east, ic other words, in those 

 parts placed as outlying districts at 

 right angles to the directions of both 

 monsoons. 



The climate at Peradeniya is such that 

 the botanist can live there in comfort 

 and work regularly. It is a good place 

 to begin the study of tropical plant life, 

 as it is not extreme in either rainfall or 

 temperature. From Peradeniya it is 

 easy to reach the various parts of the 

 island with their remarkably different 

 floras. Travelling is not expensive, and 

 as English is the regular commercial 

 language it is easy to get around. 



Although the different plant form- 

 ations of Ceylon are almost without num- 

 ber, yet a rough classification may be 

 made as follows : (1) lowland evergreen 

 rain forest ; (2) upland evergreen rain 

 forest; (3) mountain evergreen rain 

 forest ; (4) monsoon forest (half deci- 

 duous). There is no plain or prairie of 

 any extent. Our first named formation 

 is in the south-western part of the island 

 extending from Galle to Colombo and 

 inland for twenty to fifty miles. Pera- 

 deniya is situated in the upland ever- 

 green rain forest. Nuwara Eliya and 

 Hakgala (about 6,000 feet altitude) may 

 be taken as examples of our third region. 

 These points are easily reached from 

 Peradeniya by rail, the trip taking 

 about half a day. Above these points. 



