ssful experiment, to give the vine an
artificial winter by baring the roots, is recorded by Mr. BALLARD, of
Bombay, in the _Transactions of the Agric. and Hortic. Society of
India_, under date 24th May,1824. Calcutta. 1850. Vol. i. p. 96.]

The tea plant has been raised with complete success in the hills on the
estate of the Messrs. Worms, at Rothschild, in Pusilawa[1]; but the want
of any skilful manipulators to collect and prepare the leaves, renders
it hopeless to attempt any experiment on a large scale, until assistance
can be secured from China, to conduct the preparation.

[Footnote 1: The cultivation of tea was attempted by the Dutch, but
without success.]

Still ascending, at an elevation of 6500 feet, as we approach the
mountain plateau of Neuera-ellia, the dimensions of the trees again
diminish, the stems and branches are covered with orchideae and mosses,
and around them spring up herbaceous plants and balsams, with here and
there broad expanses covered with _Acanthaceae_, whose seeds are the
favourite food of the jungle fowl, which are always in perfection during
the ripening of the Nilloo.[1] It is in these regions that the
tree-ferns (_Alsophila gigantea_) rise from the damp hollows, and carry
their gracefully plumed heads sometimes to the height of twenty feet.

[Footnote 1: There are said to be fourteen species of the Nilloo
(_Strobilanthes_) in Ceylon. They form a complete under-growth in the
forest five or six feet in height, and sometimes extending for miles.
When in bloom, their red and blue flowers are a singularly beautiful
feature in the landscape, and are eagerly searched by the honey bees.
Some species are said to flower only once in five, seven, or nine years;
and after ripening their seed they die. This is one reason assigned for
the sudden appearance of the rats, which have been elsewhere alluded to
(vol. i. p. 149, ii. p. 234) as invading the coffee estates, when
deprived of their ordinary food by the decay of the nilloo. It has been
observed that the jungle fowl, after feeding on the nilloo, have their
eyes so affected by it, as to be partially blinded, and permit
themselves to be taken by the hand. Are the seeds of this plant narcotic
like some of the _Solanaceaae_? or do they cause dilatation of the pupil,
like those of the _Atropa Belladonna_?]

At length in the loftiest range of the hills the Rhododendrons are
discovered; no longer delicate bushes, as in Europe, but timber trees of