CENTRE FOR BOTANICAL RESEARCH. 
19 
The traveller to Ceylon has the choice of numerous good 
and swift steamship lines to Colombo. The four great 
mail companies, the Peninsular and Oriental, the Orient, 
Norddeutscher Lloyd, and Messageries Maritimes, run 
steamers at frequent intervals from London, Bremen, Ant- 
werp, Southampton, Marseilles, Genoa, and Naples. The 
return fares are from London or Bremen about £80 first, £50 
second class. The latter is quite comfortable, especially on 
the French and German lines. A very popular line is the 
Bibby,from Liverpool and Marseilles (return fare, first class 
only, from Liverpool £74 10s., from Marseilles £69 10s.). 
Other well-known lines are the British India, the City, the 
Nippon Yusen Kaisha or Japanese line (noted for its cheap- 
ness), and the Austrian Lloyd (from Trieste, return fare from 
Trieste £42 10s., from London, including rail via St. Gothard, 
£55). The fares to Colombo are high compared with those 
to Australia, and the traveller with time at his disposal 
should take a through ticket to Brisbane, costing a mere 
trifie more, and break journey at Colombo, afterwards pro- 
ceeding to the Straits, Java, or Australia. 
It is a great mistake to suppose that any “ outfit ” is neces" 
sary to come to Ceylon. All that is needed is a supply of 
the ordinary clothing worn in summer in Europe. Khaki, 
drill, and flannel clothes can be obtained, if needed, more 
cheaply in Colombo than in Europe, and also sunhats and a 
few necessary articles. There are good shops in the chief 
towns of the Island, and almost everything may be purchased 
as required at reasonable rates. 
Living in Ceylon, though increasing in expense as else- 
where, is still cheap enough. At hotels in the chief towns 
it costs on the average about 7 to 8 rupees per day (the rupee 
equals Is. 4,d. English money), but at resthouses* it is con- 
siderably less, especially if the traveller take his own linen 
* These are small furnished bungalows, with servants in charge, provided 
by the Government in all important towns and villages and at intervals 
of 14-15 miles along all chief roads, rendering travelling and botanising 
in almost all parts of the Island a simple matter. 
