December i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
449 
II1LLC0U:N’TKY plantikg eepoiit, 
THE DWABF MOUNTAIN BAMBOO AND ITS FLOWER— THE 
PATANA SWAMP BAMBOO — OTHER BAMBOOS — FLOWERING 
TREES — BO-TREES AND PLANTAINS AT HIGH ALTITUDES 
— TRAVELLING BY ROAD VS, RAILWAY — THE WEATHER. 
The dwarf mountain bamboo, which forms so 
large a proportion of the undergrowth of the Ceylon 
forests, at and over 4,600 feet altitude, is in flower 
and seed here at present ; and in reply to a letter 
from me Dr. Trimen states : — 
“Your small mountain Bamboo is Arundinaria dehilis. 
I think it flowers 3'early as do many of the small 
species, whereas most of the larger kinds blossom and 
seed only at long intervals. The patana swamp one 
is Arundinaria densifolia. It is flowering and seeding 
profusely this year for the first time in my experience, 
and I cinuot find that anyone has ever seen it in 
that state before.” 
It is not in aceordanea with my observation that 
the dwarf bamboo flowers annually : on the con- 
trary, I remember the late Mr. Wm, Ferguson 
being interested in the flowering and seeding of 
this species some years ago, as to him a novel 
circumstance and as enabling him to distinguish 
this bamboo from the other prevalent in our jungles, 
and of the long supple stems of which baskets, 
sieves, &c., are woven. Then as to the patana 
swamp or aquatio bamboo, I wrote very fully about 
its abundance and extreme beauty, as also its 
probable utility as a substitute for osiers, after a 
visit to Horton Plains in March 1888. Specimens 
brought away on that occasion are near me* as I 
write, as perfect in tall elegance and fine foliage 
(though altered from green to yellow in colour) 
as when they were cut from the banka of the 
Belihuloya, at an altitude of 7,000 feet, on the 
occasion mentioned. I again visited the Plain in 
Nov. 1889 willi a companion to whom I had 
descanted on the attraction which this bamboo 
added to the Maha Eliya expanses. In proportion 
was my mortification to find that the swamp bamboo 
had flowered and fruited, and that most of the tall, 
slim, beautiful stems had withered and were lying 
prostrate. This state of things I also fully de- 
scribed in a letter “ from the Hills." The scene of 
desolation, although on a smaller scale in relation 
to space but especially as to size of plants, re- 
minded me of my experience in South Wynaad in 
1870, when I saw hundreds of thousands of large 
and tall stems of Bambusa arundinacea, which had 
flowered, seeded and died down, and of which I 
procured a large quantity of seed. Plants from that 
seed grew only too well at low altitudes, but here they 
have made but poor progress, except in sheltered 
ravines. 
I should think Dr. Trimen will find that many 
of bis correspondeats in all parts of the world 
will be glad to have seeds of the specially elegant 
Arundinaria densifolia. 
About two other plants which Dr. Trimen has 
been good enough to identify for me, he writes : — 
"There is nothing to say of any general interest 
about tlie two mountain trees of which you send me 
tpecimens. 
“ A is the montane form of Turpinia pomifera, a 
common inhabitant of the hill forests. I did not know 
its young foliage was so brilliant; I suppose I do not 
happen to iiave seen it just at the right time. 
" B is Pf/rjeum irif/htianam (not a ‘ Weraln ’ but) 
called ‘ Ununu’ by the Sinhalese, a name which enters 
into the composition of several jilace-namos. 
“ Many trees ‘ flush ’ (as the tea-men say) with the 
first rains of each monsoon, and many also blossom 
twice in the year at the same times.” 
I wrote to Dr. Trimen respecting T, pomifera, be- 
cause up here it vies with the iron-wood in 
splendour of colouring, the tints of the flush 
r.7 
shading from pink to scarlet and orange. From 
the damba and kina this tree differs, inasmuch as 
the whole of the foliage does not become coloured, 
but only masses of flush at the ends of twigs, which 
at a little dialance assume the appearance of rich 
cluiiters of flowers, contrasted beautifully with the green 
of the glabrous leaves. On a portion of Lome estate 
which was not burnt, some of these trees were 
left to grow separately, and having plenty of 
room and light, they are truly beautiful objects 
handsome in form and rich in contrasted colour- 
ing. Many ravines and dells in Nuwara Eliya 
are at present brightened with the warm red of 
the young foliage of this tree, the more welcome 
as the rhododendron trees at present scarcely 
show a flower, — P. iviphtianum, which I fancied 
might be a sijmjrlocos or a weralu, has been recently 
enriching the forests with an abundant wealth of 
spikes of white and fragrant flowers. It is quite 
worthy^ of being associated with the name of the 
great South India botanist, as famous in the south 
as Wallich was in the north, more than half-a- 
oentury ago, when the former was publishing his 
leones, and the latter, having admitted that the 
Assam plant which he had ranked as a camellia 
was a true tea, was teaching botany to the students 
of the Calcutta Medical College, amongst them 
Loos and Dickmau and Anthonisz and Warn- 
beek from Ceylon.— Of course the well-knowa 
Oonoonagalia estate in Madulkele has derived its 
name from the prevalence of this tree in the 
forests which so long ago were felled to make room 
for such cultured plants as coffee, cinchona and 
tea. A young bo-tree has just been pi. nted oppo- 
site the Nanuoya station, In loking at it, I 
douoted if it would grow at the alttude, but I now 
recollect that one of the first estates opened in 
the Dimbula District was Bogahawatte. The estate 
of Kehelwatte, close by, was, I suppose so named in 
consequence of the prevalence on its forest site of 
the wild plantains? How the opening of the rail- 
way has thrown once wollknown places and 
familiar names into the shade 1 How many of the 
present generation of Europeans in Ceylon know 
anything of the once frequently traversed Colombo- 
Kandy road ? But much of the country can best 
be seen in the course of leisurely road drives. 
This day, which opened so brghtly, continued 
sunny and hot until clouds gathered at eventide and 
we heard a distant rumble of thunder ; but no rain 
fell, and there is every prospect of a fine day for our 
projected visit to Mr. Nock’s mountain paradise 
under the hoary and precipitous brow of the lofty 
Hakgala, the three peaks of which look towards 
the Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa Provinces with 
loving regards. 
COLD MORNINGS AND HOT DAYS — A TRIP TO HAKGATA— > 
THE FEUNEEY-FLOWERS-POTATOES-A FINE VIEW 
OP UVA— FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS FURTHERFD BY TUB 
RAILWAY — RAIN WANTED. 
Nanuoya, Nov. I2(b. 
" Hotter and hotter every day,” with mornings 
cold in proportion, musb be the meteorological record. 
Yesterday was a ” blazing hot " day in Nuwara Eliya 
and Hakgala : a day which rendered the cooling 
effect of a (4'ive through the atmosphere grateful, and 
doubly so the dense shade and coolness of the 
beautiful ‘‘Fernery” at Hakgala. We cannot 
wonder at this being the favourite resort of visitors 
to the mountain Gardena ; for, besides the wonderful 
colleoticn of ferns, which Mr. Nock is engaged in 
classifying and naming, there is a great variety of 
allied plants, or plants which habitually indicate a 
preference for the shade into which we were glad to 
retire on this occasion, although we had been 
