Some admirable letters of Mrs.Walker are printed in HOOKER'S _Companion to the Botanical Magazine_.

They include an excellent account of the vegetation of Ceylon.] [Footnote 2: Dr.Gardner, in 1848, drew up a short paper containing _Some Remarks on the Flora of Ceylon_, which was printed in the appendix to LEE'S _Translation of Ribeyro_: to this essay, and to his personal communications during frequent journeys, I am indebted for many facts incorporated in the following pages.] From the identity of position and climate, and the apparent similarity of soil between Ceylon and the southern extremity of the Indian peninsula, a corresponding agreement might be expected between their vegetable productions: and accordingly in its aspects and subdivisions Ceylon participates in those distinctive features which the monsoons have imparted respectively to the opposite shores of Hindustan.

The western coast being exposed to the milder influence of the south-west wind, shows luxuriant vegetation, the result of its humid and temperate climate; whilst the eastern, like Coromandel, has a comparatively dry and arid aspect, produced by the hot winds which blow for half the year.
The littoral vegetation of the seaborde exhibits little variation from that common throughout the Eastern archipelago; but it wants the _Phoenix paludosa_[1], a dwarf date-palm, which literally covers the islands of the Sunderbunds at the delta of the Ganges.

A dense growth of mangroves[2] occupies the shore, beneath whose overarching roots the ripple of the sea washes unseen over the muddy beach.
[Footnote 1: Drs.

HOOKER and THOMSON, in their _Introductory Essay to the Flora of India_, speaking of Ceylon, state that the _Nipa fruticans_ (another characteristic palm of the Gangetic delta) and _Cycads_ are also wanting there, but both these exist (the former abundantly), though perhaps not alluded to in any work on Ceylon botany to which those authors had access.