24 
RUBBER PLANTING IN CEYLON 
or grass growing in the dense shade they cast. The trees looked very 
healthy, with smooth bark and straight limbs, the branches appearing 
about thirty feet from the ground. There were about three hundred 
trees in this lot. They have been tapped experimentally a few times, but 
they are kept as seed bearers rather than rubber producers. The soil 
PERADENIYA CARDEN. 
[Castilloa elastica planted among cocoanut palms.] 
is gravelly, but seems to grow almost anything. The land is but thirty- 
three feet above the sea level, and the annual rainfall less than one 
hundred inches. 
Not far from here is the oldest planting of Hevea at this place. 
These are trees about thirty years old. They are fine specimens, with 
massive trunks three or more feet in diameter. As a rule the trunks 
