^ MONTHLY. 
XX. 
COLOMBO, MARCH 1st, 1901. 
15 o. 9. 
CEYLON : ITS BOTANIC GARDENS ; 
VEGETATION AND SHORT RE- 
PORT ON A JOURNEY TO 
CEYLON* 
By Dr. Treub of Buitenzorg, Java. 
(Concluded.) 
ADTJLLA, a small inland 
place, lies at an elevation of 
some 2,200 feet, on the eastern 
side of the principal mountain 
group of the island. It is more 
dependent, as regards rain, on 
the north-east than on the 
south-west monsoon; that is 
to say, the climate there is considerably drier than 
that of places at a similar height situated on the 
western side of the mountains. Messrs. Sarassin call 
Badulla a big oasis in the unfruitful patana region. 
The branch of the botanic garden at Peradeniya estab- 
lished there is, consequently, to put it briefly, a 
kind of experimental garden for the drier 
mountain regions. When one considers that 
our visit took place in the end of June { .he 28th)^ 
and that June and July are the months of the year 
when the least rain falls upon the placr-, it is not 
to be wondered at that the drought, when we were 
there, had caused its influence to be felt appreciably 
on the plants. Jiloreover at the beginning of the 
year difficulties had been experienced in obtaining 
the needful water, 
A certain number of fruit-trees, for which the 
drier climate is suitable, were in good condition, 
namely varieties of Citrus ; also some ornamental 
plants and flowering plants looked satisfactory. Among 
the trees we were specially struck by a flue specimen 
of Sa'piwii li(/landulosui:i. There is in the garden 
* Translated from Verslag omtrent den Staat van^ 
Lands Plantcnfuin te Buitenzorc/ over het Jaar 1898 hy 
Advocate F. H, de Yos and Donald Ferguson. 
only a Sinhalese overseer; this produces, as regards 
care and upkeep of the plantation, the same difficulties 
that we know in Java, through exclusive native 
supervision over places situated too far away for 
continued European control. At the end of 1899 the 
present overseer ("conductor") will be replaced by 
someone else, on which occasion it is intended to 
effect Some changes in the garden and in the method 
of working. 
The garden at Badulla has various fruit-trees 
available, as well as eight varieties of palms, ten 
to fifteen ornamental trees and of '' economic trees 
and plants": Bixa orellana {gUngem), rameh, oils 
palm, coca, Para rubber, Ueara rubbpr, and nut- 
megs. 
Before the railway was laid over the high moun- 
tain pass, to get from Badulla to the similar moun- • 
tain garden of^Hakgala one followed the post-road 
Since the distance comprises thirty miles and one 
has therein to climb 3,690 feet, it is now simpler 
to return by mail-coach to Bandarawela. From 
there one goes back over the portion of the moun- 
tain railway, that is so beautiful, by train, to the 
station of Nanuoya situated at 5,290 feet, where 
one has to get out in order to reach farther on 
by carriage the justly-famed plateau of Nuwara 
Eliya. 
After only hours' rail one is again transported 
from dry Bandarawela to the moist mountain climate 
of the westerly mountain [slopes. In mist and 
rain we rode in three-quarters of an hour from 
Nanuoya to Nuwara Eliya, where the weather was 
much better and at once tempted us to a walk ; "walk 
in this sense, that, clad in European costtime, one 
had to assume a brisk pace in order to get warm. 
The plateau of Nuwara Eliya, situated at 6,300. 
feet above the sea.'i is, although a great part of it 
is ^nite flat, not entirely horizontal ; there are more 
or less pronounced slopes, without great declivities 
however. It is a large plateau surrounded for a con- 
