OKER and THOMSON, in their _Introductory Essay to
the Flora of India_, speaking of Ceylon, state that the _Nipa fruticans_
(another characteristic palm of the Gangetic delta) and _Cycads_ are
also wanting there, but both these exist (the former abundantly), though
perhaps not alluded to in any work on Ceylon botany to which those
authors had access. In connection with this subject it may be mentioned,
as a fact which is much to be regretted, that, although botanists have
been appointed to the superintendence of the Botanic Gardens at Kandy,
information regarding the vegetation of the island is scarcely
obtainable without extreme trouble and reference to papers scattered
through innumerable periodicals. That the majority of Ceylon plants are
already known to science is owing to the coincidence of their being also
natives of India, whence they have been described; but there has been no
recent attempt on the part of colonial or European botanists even to
throw into a useful form the already published descriptions of the
commoner plants of the island. Such a work would be the first step to a
Singhalese Flora. The preparation of such a compendium would seem, to
belong to the duties of the colonial botanist, and as such it was an
object of especial solicitude to the late superintendent, Dr. Gardner.
But the heterogeneous duties imposed upon the person holding his office
(the evils arising from which are elsewhere alluded to), have hitherto
been insuperable obstacles to the attainment of this object, as they
have also been to the preparation of a systematic account of the general
features of Ceylon vegetation. Such a work is strongly felt to be a
desideratum by numbers of intelligent persons in Ceylon, who are not
accomplished botanists, but who are anxious to acquire accurate ideas as
to the aspects of the flora at different elevations, different seasons,
and different quarters of the island; of the kinds of plants that
chiefly contribute to the vegetation of the coasts, the plains, and
mountains; of the general relations that subsist between them and the
flora of the Carnatic, Malabar, and the Malay archipelago; and of the
more useful plants in science, arts, medicine, and commerce.

To render such a work (however elementary) at once accurate as well as
interesting, would require sound scientific knowledge; and, however
skilfully and popularly written, there would still be portions somewhat
difficult of comprehension to the o