interested in the world of nature or in his fellow man. There are broad lowlands with cocoanut trees and fields of rice, alternating with patches of deep jungle in which the natives have cleared bits of ground and built their huts. In the higher altitudes tea fields and chocolate plantations are the rule. But here also are stretches of uncleared forest with trees of all heights and sizes, frequently some with hand

FIG. 1. VIEW IN THE Pandanus QUARTER OF THE PERADENIYA GARDENS, CEYLON. Note the curious prop roots of these trees. From a photograph by the author.

some red or violet colored flowers standing out boldly amid a mass of dark green.

The garden at Peradeniya is only one of a number on the island. It is, however, the largest and most important. Here are the offices of the director of the gardens, whose duties correspond to those of a government secretary of agriculture. Other gardens and experiment.

stations, five in number, are established in parts of the island where differences in climate furnish altered conditions for plant life.

The Peradeniya garden is in the wet zone, or area of natural rain. forest, at an altitude of 1,600 feet above the sea. With an annual precipitation of about 90 inches and a mean temperature of 75° Fahrenheit there are furnished the necessary conditions for luxuriant plant growth. A "dry season," extending through February, March and April, limits the growth of air plants hanging from trees, so that in this respect Peradeniya is not so interesting as Buitenzorg, in Java. The "dry season" is, however, not long enough to interfere with the growth of most plants and nearly all of the trees retain their leaves through this period. It is quite otherwise in the arid districts of northern Ceylon, where a monsoon forest with a considerable number of deciduous trees is the natural plant formation. Peradeniya, though rather too cool for cocoanuts or Para rubber, has a climate well suited to Castilloa rubber and to tea and chocolate, while palms of nearly all kinds thrive to perfection.

The garden was not originally laid out according to any system of plant classification, but was rather a beautiful park in which trees were planted for landscape effect. Now, however, the director, is developing the garden according to systematic plans and making definite groups of plant families. Thus there are at present well-arranged plots devoted to palms, others to screw pines, others to cycads. It will necessarily be many years before the new plan can be fully carried out, for most of the plants in a tropical garden are trees. herbaceous garden forms but a small part of the whole.

Indeed, the

Here, as in any first-class garden of the tropics, much is very new and strange to the botanist from temperate climes. Palms, screwpines, giant bamboos, orchids and tree ferns, which he has known hitherto only from books or from the puny specimens of the plant house, become the commonplaces of every-day life. The sight of trees of the Composite family, Verbena family and many other groups represented at home only by herbs opens the eyes to some of the real wonders of tropical plant life. An interesting example is that of the "potato tree" belonging to the nightshade family. It does not produce potatoes, but its flower resembles that of a potato very much enlarged. At home we think of the nightshade family including only herbs and vines, but in the tropics it includes trees as large as our ordinary shade trees, such as elm and maple.

Nearly every kind of plant will grow at Peradeniya; tropical and sub-tropical plants very well indeed; temperate plants for the most part indifferently well. The latter are, however, taken care of at the mountain garden at Hakgala where the higher altitude (5,500 feet) 2 John C. Willis, M.A. (Camb.), FL.S.

gives them a climate resembling that of western Washington and Oregon. The comparative coolness of tropical highlands is well illustrated by Nuwara Elliya, a resort near Hakgala, where in the hotels a grate fire is lighted nearly every evening throughout the year.

FIG. 2. MAP OF CEYLON. Peradeniya, not shown on the map, is about three miles east of Kandy in the central part of the island. The figures indicate annual rainfall as follows: 1, Under 50 in.; 2, 50 to 75 in.; 3, 75 to 100 in.; 4, 100 to 150 in.; 5, 150 to 200 in.; 6, 200 in, or more.

While an attempt is made to grow in the gardens all of the plants which are native to Ceylon, a great many plants from other parts of the world are also to be seen there. Indeed, the wealth of

tropical beauty is here assembled. The flame tree of Madagascar, named from the brilliant color of the flowers, is a wondrous sight in March and April, the whole tree being a mass of red which hides the dark-green foliage. From India there is a tree, Saraca indica, with a profusion of brilliant orange-yellow flowers; and from tropical America various trees of the genus Brownea, especially interesting because of the graceful clusters of pendant young leaves. The leaves droop when young and tender, thus presenting very little surface for injury by the overhead sun. As they grow older a horizontal position is assumed and the red color is lost. It is supposed that the red coloring matter acts as a screen which protects the living substance of the young leaves just as the red glass in a photographer's dark-room window protects the sensitive plates from injury by light.

Among the most interesting plants are the bamboos, of which many different kinds are cultivated, some native, others imported from peninsular India or from other parts of Asia. Some interesting studies have been made at the gardens on the rate of growth of bamboo stems. These spring up almost as if by magic. To measure the growth from day to day no expensive auxanometer is needed, but only a tape measure and a coolie to climb an adjacent tree with the end of the tape. A day's growth is measured not in millimeters but in feet or inches. Bamboo stems are hollow, as are most grasses-for bamboos are but grasses and are wonderfully strong considering the weight and the amount of material in them. Indeed, the principle of the hollow cylinder so well known to engineers was long understood by the Asiatics, who use bamboos for building purposes.

Of economic plants in the garden there seems almost no end. The balmy breezes of Ceylon may well be spice-laden. Ceylon cinnamon is known the world over. The various peppers, as black pepper, long pepper, betel pepper, are woody climbers. A handsome grove of nutmeg trees is planted near the entrance the trees about seventy years old. On the ground under the trees may be found the seeds, i. e., the nutmegs, and around them a covering, the aril of the botanist, which forms the spice known as mace. Clove trees may be seen also; it is the young flower buds of the tree which are dried to make the cloves of commerce. In the garden one may see the plants which furnish vanilla, citronella oil, tea, indigo, pineapple, ramie, sisal hemp and sago. Almost countless trees there are of economic importance. A few may be named, as those which furnish coffee, chocolate, cola, cocoanut, Brazil nut, camphor, rubber, gamboge and other tropical products.

In speaking of economic plants mention must be made of the experiment station which is really a part of the garden, although situated across the river. As a matter of fact nearly all the world. lies across the river from the Peradeniya gardens, as these are situated in a bend of the stream which flows first north, then west, then south

around the gardens. The experiment station was formerly a private estate bought by the gardens at a low price because it had been allowed to run down and the chocolate trees nearly all become diseased. Scientific methods of tending and care have been introduced and a model plantation developed. Here experiments are made with new agricultural crops and with new methods of treatment. The different species of trees furnishing rubber are being tried as well as improved varieties

In the clearing

FIG. 3. BAMBOOS ALONG THE RIVER IN THE PERADENIYA GARDENS. across the stream is a small rice field. From a photograph by the author. of chocolate, cardomoms and other crops. Throughout Ceylon there is much general interest in scientific agriculture and the controller of the experiment station has the encouragement and moral support of the thinking population, both European and native. The daily newspapers at Colombo also give much attention to such matters and assume a sympathetic attitude toward government scientific work, in refreshing contrast to many of the newspapers in this country.