CEYLON BOTANIC CARDENS. 
9 
reports Thwaites deals with this, consistently rejecting 
the popular idea of the possible discovery of a cure. At this 
period he devoted a good deal of attention to the fungi of 
Ceylon, of which no less than 1,200 species, sent by him, 
were described by Berkeley and Broome in the Journal of 
the Linnean Society for LS71. 
In the report for 1873 the spread of tea cultivation is 
noticed, and the cultivation of cacao and cardamoms, both 
now important industries in Ceylon, is for the first time 
pressed upon public attention. 
The “ Enumeratio ” was purely a scientific botanist’s Flora, 
and with a view of getting more freedom from routine work 
to enable him to compile a popular Flora of Ceylon, Thwaite® 
obtained in 1874 the appointment of an Assistant Director 
(the Conductorship had been abolished in 1863). The first 
holder of this post was Mr. M. M. Hartog, now of Queen’s 
College, Cork ; the second, Dr. D. Morris, now Imperial Com- 
missioner of Agriculture in the West Indies. In spite of 
this help, however, the duties of the Directorship proved too 
heavy for Thwaites to carry out the proposed work, and it 
was left in a very fragmentary condition at his retirement. 
In 1876, the Indian Government having obtained seeds and 
plants of Hevea hrasiliensis, the Para indiarubber, from 
South America, it was found that the climate of India was 
unsuitable for them, and they were sent to Ceylon, where 
the branch garden at Henaratgoda, 17 miles from Colombo, 
on the Kandy railway, was opened for their reception, and 
as an experimental garden for strictly low-country products. 
In this garden, with its hot steamy climate (mean tempera- 
ture about 82°, elevation about 15 feet above sea level) and 
well-distributed rainfall of 100 inches, many plants of the hot 
equatorial regions flourish much better than at Peradeniya, 
and the garden, besides its use as a nursery for rubber plants, 
has proved a very useful adjunct to the principal garden. 
It contains among other features of interest a small piece of 
untouched jungle. The cultivated area is now about 30 acres. 
49-01 (2) 
