From the points of the branches panicles are produced, two or three feet in length, composed of flowers, each the size of a rose and of all shades, from a delicate pink to the deepest purple.

It abounds in the south-west of the island.
[Footnote 1: Lagerstroemia Reginae.] The magnificent Asoca[1] is found in the interior, and is cultivated, though not successfully, in the Peradenia Garden, and in that attached to Elie House at Colombo.

But in Toompane, and in the valley of Doombera, its loveliness vindicates all the praises bestowed on it by the poets of the East.

Its orange and crimson flowers grow in graceful racemes, and the Singhalese, who have given the rhododendron the pre-eminent appellation of the "great red flower," (_maha-rat-mal_,) have called the Asoca the _diya-rat-mal_ to indicate its partiality for "moisture," combined with its prevailing hue.
[Footnote 1: Jonesia Asoca.] But the tree which will most frequently attract the eye of the traveller, is the kattoo-imbul of the Singhalese[1], one of which produces the silky cotton which, though incapable of being spun, owing to the shortness of its delicate fibre, makes the most luxurious stuffing for sofas and pillows.

It is a tall tree covered with formidable thorns; and being deciduous, the fresh leaves, like those of the coral tree, do not make their appearance till after the crimson flowers have covered the branches with their bright tulip-like petals.
So profuse are these gorgeous flowers, that when they fall, the ground for many roods on all sides is a carpet of scarlet.