Juiv I, 1890,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
sg 
minately and the true Gamboge plant ia found to | 
be far more rare than the tree commonly supposed I 
to produce the Gamboge of commerce. The latter is 
very rare and I believe not even indigenous to Ceylon, 
whilst the former (a common tree) produces a Gam- 
boge which would be scarce saleable. 
Some good articles have been written in the peri- 
odicals and newspapers of our Colony on articles of 
commerce or culture and it is reasonable to suppose 
that the Agricultural Society will do much for 
Ceylon on such points. It is also to be expected 
that Horticulture will extend thro’ the exertions of 
individuals and that our Peradenia Gardens on the 
new footing will yearly add to the taste for improving 
fruits and vegetables and the introduction of foreign 
productions. Meanwhile it seems very desirable to 
ascertain the really indigenous Flora of Ceylon and 
the peculiar features of certain localities. With 
this view I shall lay before the public a few hints 
towards the Geographical distribution of our Flora, 
premising that it has been made up from a very 
short experience and from knowledge, derived, from 
my want of modern works of botany, from the older 
authors up to the time of Moon and the Prodromus 
of Wight and Arnolt. As this is about the amount 
of knowledge of the usual run of residents in the 
Island, it may serve as a groundwork until a better 
article on the subject from some more experienced 
hand shall have been published. 
GBOaEAPHICAL DIVISION OF PLANTS IN 
Ceylon. 
Part of the trees and plants in Ceylon (and these 
the most common in occurrence as forming the mass 
of vegetation) are found nearly all over the Island 
in favorable situations. Being of hardy growth few 
are peculiar to Ceylon but extend over India and 
the neighbouring Islands, of such plants I have 
made a selection in Table 1st, it includes iriany of 
the handsomer trees and shrubs of Ceylon. Many 
of these must be familiar to every resident, ^e 
Soursop tribe. Country Almond, Guava,, Jaanboo, 
Coronettree. Ceiba or Cotton, Thespesia, Indian 
Olive Pumplemos, Lemon and Orange, Tree-spurge, 
Coral’, Sappan, ■ Peacock-flower, Horseradish-tree, 
Bauhinia, Cashew, Mango, Mulberry, Banyan. Jack, 
Breadfruit, Cassia, Cinnamon, Chaste trees. Teak, 
Forbidden fruit. Temple-flower, Palmyra, Betle-nut, 
Ja-^gherry-tree, Coco-Palm, Plantain, Screw-p;ne, 
Indian rubber tree. Sago, Papaw, Bamboo, Tamarind. 
Castor, Annotto, with trees, shrubs and flowers of 
less specious appearance and many weeds In some 
instances they have been introduced into hothouses 
in England, but not universally — for what is most 
common in tropical climates is sometimes neglected 
to be sent home and of this there is a very curious 
instance in the Banyan. No foreign production has 
been oftener quoted than the Banyan both in verse 
and prose by English writers and it has been well 
described by both Cordiner and Eoxburgh some thirty 
years ago, yet two of the most popular writers of 
the day Bindley and Loudon have confused it with 
the Bo-tree (Ficus religiosa) a very different species, 
and Moon in his catalogue with Ficus Benghalensis, 
it really being the Ficus Indica and remarkable 
for its vast rooting branches, in which peculiarity 
it differs from both those other species of Fig. 
Major Forbes and the writer having sent Sir W. 
Hooker sketches of the Banyan under the name of 
Ficus Benghalensis, Sir W. published a detailed 
account of this tree, correcting the above errors, 
and stating that he suspected that English Herba- 
ria are miserably defective in specimens of the 
true Banyan. His own, rich in the productions of 
our Eastern possessions, had not a single specimen 
in March 1841 and Dr. Arnott had but one in- 3 
different specimen. It is called Manuga in Ceylon, 
On the subject of Banyans I will pass over Southey’s 
beautiful description in the curse of Kehama and 
Colonel Sykes’ famous tree in the Pooi ah collec- 
torate which has (18 stems descending from the 
branches and capable of giving shade,*' but I will 
mention a circumstance which has lately struck 
me as curious. Somewhere in the Asiatic Trans- 
actions Sir Wm. Jones says “it is true that 
minute ants are hatched in the ripe fruit of the 
Udumbara (or racemed Fig) whence it is named 
gamtephale ; and the Pandits compare it to the 
mundane egg’’ — now although 1 have always looked 
upon Sir W. -Jones as a very enquiring personage 
and very clever man, I in this instance at once 
set him down as following the theories of the school 
of 1552, who believed that Insects were spontaneously 
n lueed ! and therefore not very much astonished 
noted his opinion as rather curious with three 
of the accompanying marks (1 1 !) exactly to denote 
my own opinion on the subject. We have the 
racemed Fig in Kandy and I had seen the fruit, 
but I must say I never took any steps to investi* 
gate Sir Wm. Jones’ theory. However the other 
day I happened to bring home some of the fruit, 
of the Carpenter-fig, which I found growing on the 
root, and on opening some I found they contained 
nearly a tea spoonful of pure water, which is a 
curious instance of vegetable economy, and on 
opening another I discovered about a dozen ants 
inside. Now there was nothing remarkable in this 
had the fruit been penetrated, but on search I 
was obliged to confess that I could not discover 
any opening in any part of the fruit and conse- 
quently it is no wonder that Sir W. Jones thought 
the Pundits really correct. How they entered I 
shall leave you to determine, but suppose that the 
economy of the parent Insect is to introduce her 
eggs when the fruit is at a very early stage of 
growth, and that afterwards with the growth of 
the fruit the fissure becomes entirely obliterated. 
It is evident that the supply of water together with 
flowers and seed (all which are produced inside 
the fruit) are sufficient to support the ants, who 
are a very thirsty race. The Cingalese, who have 
naturally rather a turn for botany and the appro, 
priation of all sorts of trees and leaves to medi- 
cine and curries, believe that Banyans have no 
flowers, and although you may not have sharper eyes 
than they have and can hardly point them out 
in the tree, a Botanist will shew a trick worth two 
of theirs, for on quietly turning the fruit inside 
out and attached to the inner skin you will find 
either the flowers or the seed which they after- 
wards turn into. 
To return to the distribution of the Ceylon Flora, 
many of the trees and plants commonly spread 
over the Island are of great service and utility to 
the Natives and Europeans either as timber, fruits, 
medicines, dyes or economical purposes. In many 
instances the properties are known and have be- 
came available, but in other instances from what 
we read of respecting the use made of these trees 
and plants amongst certain tribes on the CoDtinenli 
of India or Burmese Territories it may b© conjec- 
tured that they have been overlooked or neglected 
— through the spirited exertions of individuals in the 
Company’s service most of these economical vege- 
table productions have been described under scien- 
* Sixty-eight stems must be a mistake, as our com- 
paratively youthful tree, near the Cinnamon Gardens, 
has hundreds of descending shoots. The concluding 
lines of Southey’s description are : — 
“ So like a temple doth it seem, that there 
A pious heart’s first impulse would tje prayer,” 
—Ed. T. a. 
