IN CEYLON. 
475 
trees have been leafless for a few weeks every twig bursts 
into red flowers, and these remain throughout the months of 
January and February. Fruits begin to mature in March, 
and by the end of April the seeds with their covering of 
white cotton are disbursed. When the flowering and fruiting 
periods are over the tree bursts into new leaf in April and 
May when rain can usually be relied upon. The various 
functions seem to each have an allotted period, and the 
periodicity is such that foliar and floral activities do not 
clash. The ripe fruits on the leafless twigs are exposed to 
the full force of the wind, the seeds better distributed, and 
leaf production occurs only when rain is plentiful. 
These periodicities are of equal interest in Eriodendron 
anfractuosum, and it is as well to point out a common source 
of confusion in connection with the periodicities of this 
species and Bombax malabaricum. In both cases there is a 
copious production of flowers during the leafless period and 
an abundance of ripe fruits which burst and distribute their 
seeds before the tree regains its foliage. In the case of 
Bombax the fruits are from the flowers produced in the same 
year, but the fruits on the leafless twigs of Eriodendron are 
from the flowers of the previous year. 
It should be pointed out that in most deciduous trees in 
which the flowers are produced when the tree is leafless, there 
is usually a time relationship between the floral and foliar 
activities on parts of the same tree. This can be seen in trees 
of Spondias mangifera, Chloroxylon Swietenia, and Chick- 
rassia tabularis, growing in the open. These trees become 
defoliated from above downwards, the leaves on the lower 
twigs dropping a fortnight later than those on the upper 
twigs, and in all such cases the flowers are produced first on 
the twigs which shed their leaves first, and last on the lower 
twigs which become leafless the last. 
The time relation between the production of flowers and 
leaves is characteristic of the species in dissimilar 
climates. This is seen if the periodicities of the species 
herein described are compared with those given by Brandis 
