376 
CEYLON 
Flowers are but little more obvious than human beings, and a 
large part of those seen are weeds introduced from America. Such 
of the ancient tanks as still hold water are covered with Water-lilies. 
From time to time one gets a glimpse of long-tailed Monkeys, and 
one of them in its terror almost fell into the motor. The Golden 
Oriole, and other brightly coloured birds, blue or green, now and 
again fly across the road, but the bird that interested me most was the 
Jungle Fowl (Gallus bankivus, or possibly a closely allied species), the 
reputed ancestor of our various breeds of domesticated fowls. The 
cock is in general colouring very like a game-cock. 
The most remarkable thing about Anuradhapura is the vast 
extent of the ruins. They reach for miles into the forest. The great 
bell-shaped Dagobas, about as big as St. Paul’s, rank first in magni¬ 
tude, but I admired more the countless granite monoliths, of which 
there must be many thousands. These monoliths are for the most 
part square, often ornamented in the upper portions and usually bear¬ 
ing capitals; of somewhat slender proportions they range from 8 feet 
or 10 feet to upwards of 25 feet in height. Many of them lean in 
a manner which is surprising until one learns that they are pushed 
out of the vertical, and held in the oblique position by masses of tree- 
roots, for Anuradhapura has been a deserted city for over a thousand 
years during which the forest has reigned supreme. Its most 
important buildings are upwards of 2000 years old. Apart from 
the main show-places, it is strange to see in all directions these 
monoliths standing in the tangled forest, and occasionally a solemn 
figure of Buddha, still meditating, teaching, or “renouncing the world.” 
The priests in their flowing yellow robes of almost classic fashion, 
as they move quietly about the ruins serve to connect the remote 
past with the present, for to Buddhists this is very holy ground. 
Dr. J. C. Willis, the Director of the Koyal Botanic Gardens at 
Peradeniya, seems to think that the much venerated Bo-tree may 
quite possibly be the original tree, which in its turn grew from 
a branch of that under which Gautama attained Buddha-hood, at 
Bodh Gaya in Northern India. That branch was brought to Ceylon 
in 288 B.c. Even so it would not be the oldest known tree in the 
world, for the Tree of Confucius dates back to 500 B.c. 
The part of the ruined city that found most favour with butter¬ 
flies was the pavement round the Abhayagiriya Dagoba. In India 
I had learned to associate ruins and the genus Teracolus ; it was the 
same here, the species in charge, which was quite common, being 
T. amatus, Fabr. (modesties, Butl.). These pretty butterflies were 
decidedly of the “wet” phase, the females were almost equally 
