Oct. 2. 1893.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
233 
AREA CULTIVATED ON CEYLON 
PLANTATIONS. 
In the two yearu which have elapsed since the 
Btatistics of our Planting Enterprise were last 
oompiled, a considerable addition has been made 
to the area in cultivation. So far as we can 
judge from figures which are now being tiually 
checked, the total amounts to less than 20,000 acres, 
or to give the exact figures before us, 19,164 aores. 
We are not prepared to say how much of 
this should be credited to different products — tea 
BLd cacao especially. Indeed, as regards the 
former, it is very likely that when our tables are 
complete we may find that tea has to be credited 
with more than 20,000 acres, and for this reason. 
Simultaneously with the expansion ol tea in many 
districts during the past two years, there has 
been a contraction of the area under coffee and 
perhaps cinchona. No doubt in most cases, tea 
has taken the place of the older staples ; but there 
are not a ftw fields given up in the older 
districts which have not been replanted. We 
quite expect therefore to see the increase under 
tea ex'.eed the total aggregate addiiion when 
maki' g allowance in the latter for the extent once 
nnder the older staples but no longer cultivated. 
Meantime, it is safe to dpeak of 20,000 acres as 
the addiiioti to our tea area since August 1891. 
Of the d stribution of this additional planted 
extent according to districts, we can speak a little 
more definitely. One-tenth of the whole, or about 
2,000 acres, has to be credited to the Kelani Valley 
diatrict, and in this case of course we know that the 
addition have been made on fresh land, generally 
virgin forest land. Matale West and Pangwila 
diatriots come next, if we couple them together 
with about another 2,000 acres of a Iditions either 
to existing plantations or in new places. We 
take these two districts together, because thty 
really indicate the same new and important ex- 
pansion of industry in the Valley north of Katu- 
gastota and Wattagama, which promises to give 
us more than one " Maiiawatte," besides valuable 
properties under cacao. It is si^inifioant of the 
atlention ot.ce more given to the older dis- 
tricts and of the new lease of prosperity 
which seems falling to them that such well- 
known divisions as Pu-s-iliwa, Kadugannawa 
and Kurunegala, can each show an appreciable 
increase in the art a cultivated. The first-namd 
has 1000 acres more than in 1891, indicative of tehe 
activity displayed in planting up tea in the valleys 
and hillsides South of Gampola. Kadugannawa 
has btoQ freely entered on, though long treated 
as an almost wholly abandoned district, anel we find 
an addition of 6C0 acres to the cultivation ; while 
Kurunegtla has begun to raise its head again with 
its important oac:o and coconut fields and we 
find additions here aggregating no lees than 800 
acres. Before leaving the older districts we may 
mention that Eangalla, Aliagalla. Howfheta 
Lower and Nilambe have each got a few hundreds 
of acroa added to their reooid ; while more notable 
are the oases of Dolosbage which h .s uddoJ 800 
acres to its tea fields and Upper Hew aheta which 
has increased its planted extent by no less than 
1,400 acres — all tea of oourse. Keverting to low- 
oouutry districts we find an addition of about 500 
acroa to the Kegalle-and-Polgahawela ditjtrict and 
30 
surprising to say not much more added in the 
two years to the planted area of the Ealutara 
district. 
If we turn to the higher districts, our record 
of cultivation would seem to compare somewhat 
as follows : — 
District. 
Dimbula 
Dikoya 
Maskeliya 
Lower Dikoya 
Total cultivated. 1891. 1893. 
„ acres...45,420— 45,747 
„ ...28,034— 29,269 
„ ...18,508— 18,818 
„ ... 6,771— 7,368 
Total 
„ ...98,733—101,202 
An addition of 2,500 acres in the two years in 
the case of these important districts cannot be 
considered much ; but as respects tee, the process 
of Euperpeding coffee and cinchona fields with the 
new product has certainly gone farther. If we 
now turn to Uva we have to face the division 
of Badulla into two districts :- Badulia with 
11,227 acres under cultivation and Passara with 
about 5,664 or together 16,891 acres against 15,424 
for both, two years ago. Hbputale and tlie other 
divisions including Udapussellawa show little 
or no change : what may be lost in coffee 
has been gained in tea. The only district 
which has to be entered as altogether abandoned 
this time is Lower Walapana, and this arises 
very much from the transfer of Maha-Uva to the 
Udapussellava or Upper Walapana division. Fi- 
nally, we may notice that the " low-oouutry dis- 
tricts" not separately classified, such as Amblan- 
goda, Hanwella, Heneratgoda and Veyangoda, 
show a total addition to cultivation of no less than 
3,000 acres. Altogether progress during the two 
years has been steady though it may be regarded 
as slow when compared with "the rush into tea" 
of the previous years. 
A HANDBOOK TO THE FLORA OF CEYLON, &c. 
By Henry Trimeo, m.b, f.e.s. With an Atlas of 
Plates. Part 1. RanuDcu'aceje — Anacardiaceje. 8vo. 
Pp. 327 (DuIbu & Co ) 
Botanists fcave bee-n long weitirig for a flora of 
Oeylon. Gardner, and especially Thwaitee, laid tbe 
foundations of such a work, whilst the Buccessive 
volumes of the Flora of British India have comprised 
Cingalese plants, as well as those from other parts of 
our great Indian dependency. A separate Flora of 
Cejlon is, how. ver, a great des'd ratum, especially 
to residents in the island, and this desideratum Dr. 
Trimen is specially well qual fied to supply. In plan 
this volume follows the lines of the Flora of British 
India, the descriptiors of plaLts being in English. 
No nrms earlier than 1753, when LioiteuB first de- 
finitely published his binominal nomenclature, is ac- 
cepted. The adopted names of species are followed 
by areferenae to the author who first described them 
and the date of publication. Synonyms are duly re- 
conled, and references given to the literature of the 
subject, and to the local and general distribution of 
the plants. The oolonred platos comprise a selection 
from several thousand figures, made nnder the direc- 
tion of Bucceasive Direc'ors of tbe Botanic Gardeo 
by three members of one Singbale<e family — De 
Alwis. A sketch cf the climatic regions of Oeylon 
is givei), aud the island shown to be dividi d into three 
main regions, distinguished by varying amounts of rain 
ard tempo, ature, viz., the dry low country reginn, 
the most low country region, aud tbe meutaue or 
hill country. Fi,ur-fitths of the island belong to the 
first regicn, where the vegetation ia mainly that of 
peninsular Imlia. The moist low country r^jjiou, 
thcuKb occupying lens than one-fifth of the an o, is 
the best k'lown, and the most iiiterea'ing. Vr. Tn- 
men assigns to it a limit in altitude of 'i.WJ ffot, 
