Miscellaneous- 



[September, 1911 . 



the mountains rise 2,000 or 3,000 feet 

 higher, but there is no true alpine veget- 

 ation anywhere in Ceylon. At Nuwara 

 Eliya the general aspect of vegetation 

 is much like that of temperate America 

 or Europe. The trees are much stouter 

 than those of lower altitudes and not 

 so tall. In these mountain highlands in 

 addition to forest there is a certain 

 amount of " open country," the patanas. 

 These are expanses of grassland on hill- 

 sides and rolling ground. The monsoon 

 forest occurs in the drier regions of the 

 island in the north-west and south-east. 

 Here there are no very tall trees as com- 

 pared with those of the rain forest, and 

 many of them are short and scrubby — 

 very much branched after the manner 

 of dry-country plants the world over. 

 A considerable number are deciduous, 

 losing their leaves in the hotter and 

 drier months of spring to put them on 

 again in the period of the monsoon or 

 rain-bearing winds. 



In the hot, moist lowlands of the 

 south-west part of the island a typical 

 strand flora may be seen. There are 

 mangrove swamps and thickets of Nipa 

 palm. It is in such very hot districts 

 that rubber is grown and the coconut 

 flourishes also. The drier regions have 

 usually what would be a fair allowance 

 of rain if in the temperate zone, but the 

 tropical heat causes such rapid evapor- 

 ation that the fifty inches of annual 

 rainfall at Anuradhapura is not suffi- 

 cient to grow crops without irrigation. 

 Here then is a truly arid district. 

 Farther north at Jaffna it is still drier, 

 so that almost desert conditions prevail 

 at least for a part of the year. As these 

 dry regions can be visited easily at all 

 times of year they make a very attrac- 

 tive feature of the island from the stand- 

 point of the botanist. They are especi- 

 ally interesting to the American student 

 familiar with the arid conditions of* the 

 west. In America all arid lands are 

 practically treeless, but in Ceylon the 

 forest is the natural plant formation 

 even in dry areas. 



With all of the different floras to be 

 seen in the various parts of the Island a 

 botanist may get a good idea of the 

 tropical world in a short time and with 

 slight expense. The Director of the 

 Gardens and his staff are anxious to 

 have scientific visitors, not only botan- 

 ists, but zoologists and geologists as well. 

 Two rooms at the Government Rest- 

 house (a kind of hotel) are reserved for 

 scientific visitors, and no charge is made 

 for lodging, although, of* course, table 

 board must be paid for. The cost of 

 living will be found to be not more than 

 in other tropical countries with fewer 

 advantages for study 



Ceylon has never attracted a great 

 number of studeuts, but a considerable 

 amount of valuable work has been done 

 there. Haeckel certainly obtained many 

 of his philosophical ideas of the plant 

 and animal worlds during his visit to 

 the island. Modern science and philo- 

 sophy owe much to the influence of 

 Ceylon on his writings. But Haeckel's 

 zoological collections were also valuable, 

 and the collections of others at later 

 times have added much to the world's 

 store of knowledge in regard to tropical 

 life. On the side of botany probably 

 the name which is oftenest associated 

 with Ceylon is that of the late H. 

 Marshall Ward, who as a young man 

 spent two years on the island studying 

 the coffee disease. Although he worked 

 out the etiology of the disease and the 

 life-history of the parasite, he was un- 

 able to devise a method of prevention. 

 Henry Trimen, who was Director of the 

 Gardens atPeradeniya for sixteen years, 

 published the ''Flora of Ceylon," which 

 was completed by Sir Joseph Hooker in 

 1900, after the death of Trimen. It is 

 interesting to note that Hooker had 

 himself collected plant? in Ceylon fifty- 

 three years before. Of recent public- 

 ations the work of Mr. Willis, the Direc- 

 tor, on a curious family of plants, the 

 Podostomacae, is especially noteworthy. 

 An exhaustive study of the trees of the 

 ebony genus has been made by Mr. 

 Herbert Wright. Mr. R. H. Lock has 

 also done some remarkably good work 

 in plant-breeding experiments which 

 deserve special mention. Various 

 students have worked on minor pro- 

 blems, with results which have been 

 published in botb European and Ameri- 

 can journals. In June, 1901, there was 

 begun the publication of the Annals of 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya.* 

 This publication is issued at irregular 

 intervals at a nominal price. It contains 

 contributions from the Director and 

 other members of the scientific staff of 

 the Gardens. 



The West Indies and the Philippines 

 will, no doubt, attract more students 

 of Botany from America than will 

 Ceylon, but in a few years no one will 

 claim to be a trained botanist unless he 

 has had the advantages of study in 

 some tropical laboratory. There is no 

 tropical land which offers better oppor- 



* Students interested in knowing more con- 

 cerning the opprtunities for research at Pera- 

 deniya should consult the first number of the 

 Annals in which these opportunities are fully 

 set forth. An excellent account of the island 

 of Ceylon with a statement of its resources is 

 given in the "World's Fair Handbook of 

 Ceylon," prepared for the St. Louis Exposition. 



