2 
WILLIS : HISTORY OF THE 
result of the collapse of the great coffee industry by the 
attack of the leaf disease, that science can afford services 
’of as much value in aiding established industries to combat 
disease as in introducing new industries, and this has 
gradually led to the appointment of two officers upon the 
staff of the gardens whose primary duty is the investigation 
of the insects and fungi of the Island, especially those 
likely to be injurious, and the discovery, if possible, of 
means of combating their attacks. For the work of these 
officers, and for other scientific work carried on here, a new 
laboratory has been opened. Whilst the collection of the 
local flora and the introduction and acclimatization of 
plants from abroad is still vigorously carried on, these are 
no longer the sole duties undertaken by the Department. 
The condition of the various local industries is investigated 
by the scientific staff, and experiments are carried on in 
order to determine in what ways the methods or operations 
of these industries may be profitably improved ; other 
experiments are devoted to the discovery, if possible, of new 
industries based on the cultivation of native or introduced 
plants. 
It will thus be seen that there is scarcely any branch of 
modern botanical or agricultural science which is entirely 
unrepresented in the present organization of the Department. 
The general basis of the work is rigidly scientific, but the 
production of results of immediate practical value to local 
industries is steadily kept in view. Every facility for the 
carrying out of researches in pure or applied Botany is so 
far as possible afforded, both to workers on the regular staff 
of the gardens and to workers from Europe and abroad, for 
whom space is reserved in the laboratory. 
It will be convenient to deal with the subject by the 
historical method. The present headquarters of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, a Department of the Public Service of 
Ceylon, are at Peradeniya, but this was by no means always 
the case. The Dutch had a garden in Slave Island» 
