An English Station for Botanical Research in the Tropics (Ceylon)

Abstract

THE Royal Botanic Gardens of Ceylon, under the direction of Thwaites and Trimen, to go no further back, have long been known as one of the most important centres of scientific work in systematic and economic botany. Thanks to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a small room next to the director's office was fitted up as a laboratory, in which have worked many botanists, chiefly English. Among those who have worked in Ceylon during the last decade may be mentioned Profs. Bower, Farmer, Goebel and Potter, and Messrs. Freeman, Keeble, Pearson, Parkin, and others. During the last two years the laboratory has been very much overcrowded, being used by the staff of the gardens as well as by visiting botanists. With the commencement this year of a new research laboratory, now being erected by the Department of Public Works, and to be completed probably before the end of the year, this difficulty will be overcome, and there will be ample room for several workers from abroad in addition to the members of the staff. This being so, it may not be amiss to give at this time an account of the facilities now available in Ceylon for research in the tropics. While the laboratory is primarily intended for botanical research, there is no intention of excluding workers in other lines so long as there is room for them, though of course money cannot be spent in providing special apparatus for their work.