owering shrubs of similar beauty, enliven the forests with their
splendour; and the seeds of the cinnamon, carried by the birds from the
cultivated gardens near the coasts, have germinated in the sandy soil,
and diversify the woods with the fresh verdure of its polished leaves
and delicately-tinted shoots. It is to be found universally to a
considerable height in the lower range of hills, and thither the Chalias
were accustomed to resort to cut and peel it, a task which was imposed
on them as a feudal service by the native sovereign, who paid an annual
tribute in prepared cinnamon to the Dutch, and to the present time this
branch of the trade in the article continues, but divested of its
compulsory character.

The Dutch, in like manner, maintained, during the entire period of their
rule, an extensive commerce in pepper worts, which still festoon the
forest, but the export has almost ceased from Ceylon. Along with these
the trunks of the larger trees are profusely covered with other delicate
creepers, chiefly Convolvuli and Ipomoeas; and the pitcher-plant
(_Nepenthes distillatoria_) lures the passer-by to halt and conjecture
the probable uses of the curious mechanism, by means of which it distils
a quantity of limpid fluid into the vegetable vases at the extremity of
its leaves. The Orchideae suspend their pendulous flowers from the angles
of branches, whilst the bare roots and the lower part of the stem are
occasionally covered with fungi of the most gaudy colours, bright red,
yellow, and purple.

Of the east side of the island the botany has never yet been examined by
any scientific resident, but the productions of the hill country have
been largely explored, and present features altogether distinct from
those of the plains. For the first two or three thousand feet the
dissimilarity is less perceptible to an unscientific eye, but as we
ascend, the difference becomes apparent in the larger size of the
leaves, and the nearly uniform colour of the foliage, except where the
scarlet shoots of the ironwood tree (_Mesua ferrea_) seem, like flowers
in their blood-red hue. Here the broad leaves of the wild plantains
(_Musa textilis_) penetrate the soil among the broken rocks; and in
moist spots the graceful bamboo flourishes in groups, whose feathery
foliage waves like the plumes of the ostrich.[1] It is at these
elevations that the sameness of the scenery is diversified by the grassy
patenas before alluded to[2], which, in th