Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/816

304 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. successive Superintendent, — and six died between 1825 and 1849 — all papers were removed to the Kachcheri in the neighbouring town of Kandy; and three removals being as bad as a fire, they probably suffered some loss in consequence.

The approximate dates of introduction of the earlier species were worked out by Trimen, and included by him in his Hortus Zeylanicus (1888). These were deduced chiefly from the records and specimens of botanists who visited Ceylon before the establishment of a Botanic Garden. For example, if Trimen stated that a given species was introduced before 1678, that means that the species was recorded or collected by Hermann. Similarly, the date 1824 signi- fies that the plant in question was enumerated by Moon in his Catalogue of Ceylon Plants. Moon's records, however, are to be accepted with reserve, as in very few cases are there any specimens in support of them.

The first record of Lantana for Ceylon was made by Moon, who recorded Lantana trifolia, as an introduced plant, in his Catalogue published in 1824. As it is included in the Additions, not in the main body of the Catalogue, it was probably introduced while the book was in the press. Moon cites Bot. Mag. t. 1449, hence it is assumed that his identification was correct. But Moon's plant, Lantana trifolia, is a common weed only at high elevations ; it is not the common Lantana of the low country.

Colonel and Mrs. Walker who enumerated the plants met with between Ratnapura and Adam's Peak in the Colombo Journal, 1833, did not mention Lantana. Again, Mrs. Walker, in describing a tour in the low-country in Hooker's Journal of Botany, II (1840), pp. 223- 256, made no reference to it. Champion (Hooker's Journal of Bot- any, III (1841), pp. 282-292) recorded that Lantana aculeata occurred round Colombo in 1839 ; and in 1843, he enumerated Lantana sp. among the predominating shrubs and plants from sea level to 2,000- 3,000 ft. As the native Lantana indica is very rare in Ceylon, the latter record is not likely to refer to that. Finally, Gardner, in "Some general remarks on the Flora of Ceylon ' (1848), referred to " The Lantanas which are to be met with almost everywhere in bushy places and hedges."

Trimen did not assign a date to the introduction of Lantana aculeata in his Hortus Zeylanicus (1888). In the Flora of Ceylon, III, p. 346, he stated that it was introduced soon after 1824 and added that its introduction was attributed to Sir Hudson Low, who held a military command in Ceylon in 1826. As it had become a weed by 1839, the suggested date is probably correct.