one
concerning which a singular error has been perpetuated in botanical
works from the time of Paul Hermann, who first described it in 1687, to
the present. I mean the _kiri-anguna_ (Gymnema lactiferum), evidently a
form of the G. sylvestre, to which has been given the name of the
_Ceylon cow-tree_; and it is asserted that the natives drink its juice
as we do milk. LOUDON (_Ency. of Plants_, p. 197) says, "The milk of the
_G. lactiferum_ is used instead of the vaccine ichor, and the leaves are
employed in sauces in the room of cream." And LINDLEY, in his _Vegetable
Kingdom_, in speaking of the Asclepiads, says, "the cow plant of Ceylon,
'kiri-anguna,' yields a milk of which the Singhalese make use for food;
and its leaves are also used when boiled." Even in the _English
Cyclopaedia_ of CHARLES KNIGHT, published so lately as 1854, this error
is repeated. (See art. Cow-tree, p. 178.) But this in altogether a
mistake;--the Ceylon plant, like many others, has acquired its epithet
of _kiri_, not from the juices being susceptible of being used as a
substitute for milk, but simply from its resemblance to it in colour and
consistency. It is a creeper, found on the southern and western coasts,
and used medicinally by the natives, but never as an article of food.
The leaves, when chopped and boiled, are administered to nurses by
native practitioners, and are supposed to increase the secretion of
milk. As to its use, as stated by London, in lieu of the vaccine matter,
it is altogether erroneous. MOON, in his _Catalogue of the Plants of
Ceylon_, has accidentally mentioned the kiri-anguna twice, being misled
by the Pali synonym "kiri-hangula": they are the same plant, though he
has inserted them as different, p. 21.]

But that which arrests the attention even of an indifferent passer-by is
the endless variety and almost inconceivable size and luxuriance of the
_climbing plants and epiphytes_ which live upon the forest trees in
every part of the island. It is rare to see a single tree without its
families of dependents of this description, and on one occasion I
counted on a single prostrate stem no less than sixteen species of
Capparis, Beaumontia, Bignonia, Ipomoea, and other genera, which, in its
fall, it had brought along with it to the ground. Those which are free
from climbing plants have their higher branches and hollows occupied by
ferns and orchids, of which latter the variety is endless in Ceylon,
though the beauty of their