16 Tansley and Fritsch. 
to a height of some inches and bears several leaves before any roots 
appear. Seedlings in all stages of development are very commonly 
met with in suitable spots on the coast, particularly on the banks of 
estuaries, but also in any spot which the fruit can reach and which 
is sufficiently damp. 
There can be no doubt that these adaptations help to account 
for the great success and abundance of Ccrbera. It flourishes 
equally well on muddy soil. 
Calotropis gigantea (Asclepiadaceae) is a large bush with large 
fleshy leaves and pale mauve flowers. It is a common wayside 
lowland bush, and is very often dotted about at the back of the 
beach. It appears to increase in the dry region, being distinctly 
more abundant at Tangalla (40") than in the wet region, while at 
Hambantota (36"), one of the driest places in the island, it forms a 
conspicuous feature of the background. 
In passing from the wet to the dry region of the South coast 
very striking changes in the coast vegetation are met with. Certain 
plants increase and become dominant, while others fall into the 
background and disappear. At Tangalla, the ground west of the 
village slopes steeply up from the shore, and is partly covered with 
dense thickets of Clerodendron inerme , Jatropha gossypifolia 
(Euphorbiaceae), a semi-shrub of the dry region found specially on 
the coast and the introduced Euphobia Tirucalli, a shrub with leafless 
cylindrical branches without thorns. This last plant is commonly 
used for hedges in the dry part of the low country. In the wet 
region an occasional specimen only is found, and these are quite 
small in stature, but as the country becomes drier it increases in 
size, till at Tangalla it becomes quite a tree; there are also 
regular thickets of Pandanns odoratissimus, and a considerable 
amount of Calotropis gigantea. 
At Hambantota (36") very little of the Beach-jungle is to be met 
with, except that as already mentioned Calotropis gigantea forms a 
very prominent feature of the background ; occasional bushes of 
Scaevola Konigii are also found. Behind the Spinifex, on the flat 
sea-shore of the bay to the north of the town a sandy bank arises, 
whose more or less steep seaward side is almost devoid of 
vegetation, whilst beyond the summit the ground slopes slowly 
down to the sandy plain beyond and is covered by the low shrubby, 
xerophilous vegetation, which is characteristic of this, one of the 
driest regions in the island. The plants, found at the summit of this 
ridge, and thus forming a kind of background to the strand- 
