An attractive plot at Peradeniya is the Kitchen Garden, in which are assembled such "vegetables" as will grow in that hot, moist climate. Many of our common vegetables do well and can be had at all seasons, for example, beans, beets, peas, celery, lettuce and cress. Potatoes are generally small and poor. Sweet corn will grow in Ceylon, but has not thus far come into use. Of tropical vegetables various “yams” are much used, particularly by the natives. The word "yam" is applied to tubers and thickened roots of many different species of plants. Eggplants, different from ours in the temperate zone, are cultivated, also certain plants used, for “greens.” Breadfruit trees produce the large heavy fruits of that name, but these would properly be classified among vegetables. Breadfruit is not much used by the British in Ceylon, who, in fact, eat chiefly the same things that they are accustomed to eat at home on their own tight little island.

Thus far we have been considering the attractions of the Peradeniya gardens to the casual visitor. To the botanist they are even more interesting. Every facility is offered by the director of the gardens for investigation by visiting men of science. There is a good herbarium in charge of competent curators and a working library of botanical books and periodicals. Good laboratory facilities are also offered. Although the laboratory for visitors is not fully equipped with physiological apparatus, there are the usual necessaries and it is easy to obtain all ordinary supplies at Kandy or Colombo. Native joiners, tinsmiths and metal-workers can be secured at very low rates to make articles needed. Photographic materials may be obtained at Kandy, only three miles away, and skilled photographers may be engaged to develop negatives or do other photographic work such as making lantern slides.

Opportunities for securing museum material are excellent. Collections of tropical woods properly named are prepared to order by dealers in Kandy. Plant material may be collected from the garden and preserved in formaldehyde or alcohol. Herbarium specimens from the garden can be collected and dried, but the botanist will need to remember that nothing short of the most thorough drying will suffice. It will also be necessary to use a liberal amount of naphthalene scattered through the dry specimens at all times. A native plant collector is detailed by the director of the gardens to assist visiting botanists in getting material from either the garden or the jungle. This man is well acquainted with nearly all of the species in the garden or growing in the vicinity and can usually tell the scientific name offhand, although sometimes he needs to refer to the herbarium. At the laboratory native assistants are provided who clean up apparatus and glassware and make themselves generally useful.

One of the most interesting things about Ceylon is the way in

FIG. 4. Brownea, A TREE WITH YOUNG LEAVES HANGING LIMP AT THE ENDS OF THE BRANCHES. At the right a Talipot palm in blossom. From a photograph by the author.

which the jungle comes to the very door of civilization. In our own country we do not find "backwoods" close to cities and towns, but must travel a long way from Boston or New York to find the primeval forest. Ceylon, however, like other tropical countries, furnishes examples of jungle in close proximity to the large towns. Indeed, everywhere throughout the island the forest is easily reached. There is no half-way land in Ceylon. That which is needed for roads, gardens or fields is well cared for; other land grows up quickly to jungle. Old fields, abandoned a few years, soon become a dense thicket and later a forest. This is well seen at Anuradhapura, one of the ruined cities in the north central part of the island. Here, the government archeologists, as they find various parts of buildings such as columns and arches, set them up in place; but sometimes they neglect to

clear out the trees for a sufficient distance and their "finds" once more become overturned by growing roots or the stems of gigantic climbers.

So, where jungle is the rule, and clearings have to be protected, it is natural that the botanical gardens should have a patch of jungle. This is situated in the experiment station grounds, but easily reached by the visitor. Here may be seen the native trees of the region in their natural condition and the visitor may get some idea of tropical luxuriance in the large number of species present on even a small tract of ground. It must be said, however, that a visit to this bit of jungle would be, to many visitors, a disappointment, for it is not filled with air plants hanging from the trees nor rendered impenetrable by interlacing stems of climbing plants. It is, however, much easier to travel through than the jungles at sea level in districts of great heat and humidity.

The botanist who is interested in ecology-the relation of the plant to its environment-is often on the lookout for field and roadside weeds. In temperate regions, particularly in the western United States, roadside weeds make a constant and striking feature of the landscape. This is not the case, as a rule, in the tropics. Indeed, there are not only rather few weeds, but few flowering herbs of any kind. The

FIG. 5. A "SCREW PINE"; not a pine at all, but a monocotyledon of the genus Pan

danus. From a photograph by the author.

tropics are a region of big things and the herbaceous plants make little impression on the visitor. At the Peradeniya garden, the writer noted a small area of perhaps half an acre that had been neglected for a time. Here, although there were many tree seedlings started, there was a fairly good patch of weeds-enough to make a lonely American feel quite at home. These weeds were chiefly Lantanas and some of our American composites, particularly the fleabane Erigeron and also Conyza.

It would be difficult to find elsewhere in the world an area the size of Ceylon, or even much larger, with so many different vegetation regions. The differences in these regions are brought about largely by

At the far right is the office of the director. From a photograph by the author.

the winds which determine the distribution of rainfall and by altitude with consequent temperature changes. The wet weather comes with the rains from two different directions. The northeast monsoon commences in October and brings heavy rains throughout the higher parts of the island and in the lowland country of the northeast. A series of rains continues through November and December, with a rather light rainfall during January, February and March. In April the wind changes to southwest and there is more rain, with June especially wet. From then until October the rainfall is again lighter. It will be seen then, that in the highlands it is always moist, but that there are certain districts which have a rather pronounced dry season. The driest parts of the island are in the north and the south or northwest and south

east, in other words, in those parts placed as outlying districts at right angles to the directions of both monsoons.

The climate at Peradeniya is such that the botanist can live there in comfort and work regularly. It is a good place to begin the study of tropical plant life, as it is not extreme in either rainfall or temperature. From Peradeniya it is easy to reach the various parts of the island with their remarkably different floras. Traveling is not expensive and as English is the regular commercial language it is easy to get around.

Although the different plant formations of Ceylon are almost without number, yet a rough classification may be made as follows: (1) lowland evergreen rain forest; (2) upland evergreen rain forest; (3)

From a

mountain evergreen rain forest; (4) monsoon forest (half deciduous). There is no plain or prairie of any extent. Our first named formation is in the southwestern part of the island extending from Galle to Colombo and inland for twenty to fifty miles. Peradeniya is situated in the upland evergreen rain forest. Nuwara Eliya and Hakgala (about 6,000 feet altitude) may be taken as examples of our third region. These points are easily reached from Peradeniya by rail, the trip taking about half a day. Above these points the mountains rise 2,000 or 3,000 feet higher, but there is no true alpine vegetation anywhere in Ceylon. At Nuwara Elliya the general aspect of vegetation is much like that of temperate America or Europe. The trees are much