on of an imperfect and
unsatisfactory catalogue by Moon, no enumeration of Ceylon plants has
yet been published. Dr. Gardner had made some progress with a Singhalese
Flora, when his death took place in 1849, an event which threw the task
on other hands, and has postponed its completion for years.[2]

[Footnote 1: Amongst the collections of Ceylon plants deposited in the
Hookerian Herbarium, are those made by General and Mrs. Walker, by Major
Champion (who left the island in 1848), and by Mr. Thwaites, who
succeeded Dr. Gardner in charge of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kandy.
Moon, who had previously held that appointment, left extensive
collections in the herbarium at Peradenia which have been lately
increased by his successors; and Macrae, who was employed by the
Horticultural Society of London, has enriched their museum with Ceylon
plants. Some admirable letters of Mrs. Walker are printed in HOOKER'S
_Companion to the Botanical Magazine_. They include an excellent account
of the vegetation of Ceylon.]

[Footnote 2: Dr. Gardner, in 1848, drew up a short paper containing
_Some Remarks on the Flora of Ceylon_, which was printed in the appendix
to LEE'S _Translation of Ribeyro_: to this essay, and to his personal
communications during frequent journeys, I am indebted for many facts
incorporated in the following pages.]

From the identity of position and climate, and the apparent similarity
of soil between Ceylon and the southern extremity of the Indian
peninsula, a corresponding agreement might be expected between their
vegetable productions: and accordingly in its aspects and subdivisions
Ceylon participates in those distinctive features which the monsoons
have imparted respectively to the opposite shores of Hindustan. The
western coast being exposed to the milder influence of the south-west
wind, shows luxuriant vegetation, the result of its humid and temperate
climate; whilst the eastern, like Coromandel, has a comparatively dry
and arid aspect, produced by the hot winds which blow for half the year.
The littoral vegetation of the seaborde exhibits little variation from
that common throughout the Eastern archipelago; but it wants the
_Phoenix paludosa_[1], a dwarf date-palm, which literally covers the
islands of the Sunderbunds at the delta of the Ganges. A dense growth of
mangroves[2] occupies the shore, beneath whose overarching roots the
ripple of the sea washes unseen over the muddy beach.

[Footnote 1: Drs. HO