instinct leads them to its discovery. The
wild hogs plough up the patinas and revel in this delicate food. The
plant itself is almost lost in the rank herbage of the patinas, but its
beautiful pink, hyacinth-shaped blossom attracts immediate attention.
Few plants combine beauty of appearance, scent and utility, but this is
the perfection of each quality--nothing can surpass the delicacy and
richness of its perfume. It has two small bulbs about an inch below
the surface of the earth, and these, when broken, exhibit a highly
granulated texture, semi-transparent like half-boiled sago. From these
bulbs the arrowroot is produced by pounding them in water and drying
the precipitated farina in the sun.

There are several beautiful varieties of orchidaceous plants upon the
mountains; among others, several species of the dendrobium. Its rich
yellow flowers hang in clusters from a withered tree, the only sign of
life upon a giant trunk decayed, like a wreath upon a grave. The scent
of this flower is well known as most delicious; one plant will perfume
a large room.

There is one variety of this tribe in the neighborhood of Newera Ellia,
which is certainly unknown in English collections. It blossoms in
April; the flowers are a bright lilac, and I could lay my band upon it
at any time, as I have never seen it but in one spot, where it
flourishes in profusion. This is about fourteen miles from Newera
Ellia, and I have never yet collected a specimen, as I have invariably
been out hunting whenever I have met with it.

The black pepper is also indigenous throughout Ceylon. At Newera
Ellia the leaves of this vine are highly pungent, although at this
elevation it does not produce fruit. A very short distance toward a
lower elevation effects a marked change, as within seven miles it
fruits in great perfection.

At a similar altitude, the wild nutmeg is very common throughout the
forests. This fruit is a perfect anomaly. The tree is entirely
different to that of the cultivated species. The latter is small,
seldom exceeding the size of an apple-tree, and bearing a light green
myrtle-shaped leaf, which is not larger than that of a peach. The wild
species, on the contrary, is a large forest tree, with leaves equal in
size to those of the horse chestnut; nevertheless, it produces a
perfect nutmeg. There is the outer rind of fleshy texture, like an
unripe peach; enclosed within is the nutlike shell, enveloped in the
crimson