flower is not equal to those of Brazil and
other tropical countries. In the many excursions which I made with Dr.
Gardner he added numerous species to those already known, including the
exquisite _Saccolabium guttatum_, which we came upon in the vicinity of
Bintenne, but which had before been discovered in Java and the mountains
of northern India. Its large groups of lilac flowers hung in rich
festoons from the branches as we rode under them, and caused us many an
involuntary halt to admire and secure the plants.

A rich harvest of botanical discovery still remains for the scientific
explorer of the districts south and east of Adam's Peak, whence Dr.
Gardner's successor, Mr. Thwaites, has already brought some remarkable
species. Many of the Ceylon orchids, like those of South America,
exhibit a grotesque similitude to various animals; and one, a
_Dendrobium_., which the Singhalese cultivate in the palms near their
dwelling, bears a name equivalent to the _White-pigeon flower,_ from the
resemblance which its clusters present to a group of those birds in
miniature clinging to the stem with wings at rest.

But of this order the most exquisite plant I have seen is the
_Anaectochilus setaceus_, a terrestrial orchid which is to be found about
the moist roots of the forest trees, and has drawn the attention of even
the apathetic Singhalese, among whom its singular beauty has won for it
the popular name of the Wanna Raja, or "King of the Forest." It is
common in humid and shady places a few miles removed from the sea-coast;
its flowers have no particular attraction, but its leaves are perhaps
the most exquisitely formed in the vegetable kingdom; their colour
resembles dark velvet, approaching to black, and reticulated over all
the surface with veins of ruddy gold.[1]

[Footnote 1: There is another small orchid bearing a slight resemblance
to the wanna raja, which is often found growing along with it, called by
the Singhalese iri raja, or "striped king." Its leaves are somewhat
bronzed, but they are longer and narrower than those of the wanna raja;
and, as its Singhalese name implies, it has two white stripes running
through the length of each. They are not of the same genus; the wanna
raja being the only species of _Anaectochilus_ yet found in Ceylon.]

The branches of all the lower trees and brushwood are so densely covered
with convolvuli, and similar delicate climbers of every colour, that
frequently it is difficult to di