IN CEYLON. 
hot dry country in Ceylon ; and D. sylvatica, Boxb., now 
only rarely met with in this Island. In 1807 D. Embryop- 
teris, Pers.,* and in 1827 D. Toposia, Ham.j were found, 
the former first in the East Indies and the latter in Bengal, 
but both subsequently found in very many parts of Ceylon. 
Nearly a quarter of a century passed before the next 
Ceylon species was found, and this discovery—D. ovali- 
folia, Wight %—was first made in Madras. This was speedily 
.followed by the discovery of D. pruriens, Dalz.,§ first in 
Bombay by Dalzell, and subsequently in the Sabaragamuwa 
Province by Thwaites.|| By that time Dr. Thwaites, then 
Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, had 
commenced the work of collecting the plants of Ceylon, and 
his discovery of D. pruriens. Dais., in Ceylon, so soon after 
that by Dalzell, was followed by the discovery of ten! 
species of Diospyros in 1860; seven of these have not yet 
been found out of Ceylon, and some of them are at the 
present time exceedingly rare. The species found were :— 
D. crumenata, D. affinis, D. qusesita, D. oocarpa, D. insignis, 
D. oppositifolia, D. Gardneri, D. Moonii, D. acuta, and D. 
attenuata. Since then only one species has been added to 
the Ceylon group, viz.,D. Thwaitesii,by Beddome** in 1871, 
a form peculiar to this Island. 
Locally, no further original work has been done on the 
genus Diospyros other than what is represented in Dr. 
Trimen’s “ Handbook of the Flora of Ceylon.” 
II.—DISTRIBUTION IN CEYLON. 
The forest vegetation in Ceylon varies according to the 
rainfall and elevation, and as far as the genus Diospyros is 
concerned we may speak of the species as being dry, wet, 
* C. H. Persoon, Synopsis Plantarum, Vol. IL, p. 624,1807. 
f Hamilton, Trans. Linn. Soc., Lond., YoL XV., p. 115, 1827. 
x Dr. Wight, leones Plant. Ind. Orient., t. 1,227, 1850. 
§ Dalzell, Kew Journal of Botany, Vol. IV., p. 110,1852. 
|| Trimen, Flpra of Ceylon, Vol. HL, p. 95. 
! Thwaites, Enum. Plant. Zeyl., pp. 179-182, 1860. 
** Beddome, Ic. PL Ind. Or., p. 27, t. exuv., 1871. 
