74

vious circulation in manuscript and he and his brother-dramatists showed how bitterly they resented the criticism in chapter 48. Cervantes was slow in taking advantage of his popularity. Instead of giving his readers the sequel they asked for, he busied himself with writing for the stage and composing short tales, or 'exemplary novels ' as he called them. The Viage del Parnaso, a poem of over 3000 lines in terza rima, reviewing the poetry and poets of the day, was another of his productions at this time. In 1613 he published his twelve Novelas, and promised his readers the second part of Don Quixote shortly.' But in 1614 a writer, under the pseudonym of Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda, brought out a spurious second part, with an insulting preface, full of coarse personal abuse of Cervantes. It was the work of a dull plagiarist, an imitator insensible to the merits of his model; but it served as the spur Cervantes needed to urge him to the completion of the genuine second part, which was sent to the press early in 1615, and published at the end of the year. It was not too soon; his health was already failing, and he died at Madrid on the 23d of April 1616. His last labours were given to things more important in his eyes than Don Quixote. While it was in the press he revised and published his rejected comedies and interludes, and but a short time before his death he finished his romance of Persiles and Sigismunda. There are few pieces of his writing more characteristic of the man than the last two that ever came from his pen-written, indeed, upon his very deathbed-the address to the reader and the dedication to the Conde de Lemos, whose generosity had relieved him from the pressure of poverty; and, like every glimpse of himself that his pages give us, they make us wish that we knew more of one so full of wisdom, patience, and charity, so bright and so brave.

It is in right of Don Quixote that the name of Cervantes has a place here; but his minor works entitle him to an honourable one in the history of Spanish literature. His novels are the best of their kind-a kind Spain excelled in; and though the Galatea is doubtless inferior to the Diana, its greatest fault is that, like the Diana, it belongs to a radically insipid species of romance. The title of poet is commonly denied him; but if a good deal of his poetry is weak, there is much that only a poet could have written, and not even Garcilaso had a finer sense of melody or a truer touch in verse. It would be unjust to judge of his dramatic powers by the comedies printed in 1615. They were nothing more than a desperate attempt to gain a footing on the stage by a concession to the popular taste. To found a great national drama worthy of his country was the ambition of his life, and the first step was to obtain a hearing. The tragedy of Numancia, with all its defects the most powerful and original drama in the language, is a better measure of Cervantes as a dramatist. And if it is impossible to accept his own estimate of the Persiles and Sigismunda, no reader will deny its invention and grace of style. His minor works all show signs of the author's care; Don Quixote, on the other hand, is the most carelessly written of all great books. Cervantes, it is plain, did not look upon it in that light. He was very proud of its popularity; but all he ever claims for it is that it will amuse, and that it did the state some service in laughing chivalry romances out of fashion. He wrote it by fits and starts; he neglected it for his other works; he sent it to the printers without revision, and made merry over their blunders and his own oversights. But it may be that we owe more to this carelessness than we think. One of

the marvels of this marvellous book is its perennial youth. After well-nigh three centuries it is as fresh and full of life as when it came from La Cuesta's press. In his other works Cervantes studied recognised models and consulted the tastes of the day; in Don Quixote he followed the lead of his own genius alone, and wrote only as instinct prompted him. Written in a desultory fashion, it had time to grow and ripen under his hand; Don Quixote and Sancho, outlines at first, became by degrees flesh and blood realities to his mind, and beings that he loved; and the book-the second part especially-served him as a kind of commonplacebook to which he turned to when he was in the mood, making it the depository of his thoughts and record of the experience and observation of a stirring life. We need not commit the disloyalty of doubting his word when he says that all he sought was to cure his countrymen of their passion for chivalry romances. He had motive enough in the magnitude of the evil, and his was only one of scores of voices lifted up against it; nor is there anything extraordinary in a champion of true chivalry, as he was, resenting a mockery that made it contemptible. But the genius of Cervantes was essentially discursive, and many other offenders and offences were comprehended in the indictment that he brought against the romances of chivalry and their readers.

The only complete edition of Cervantes' works is that of Rivadeneyra (in 12 vols. large Svo, Madrid, 1863-64). Editions of the selected works are those of Ibarra (16 vols. small 8vo, Madrid, 1803-5), Bossange (10 vols. 12mo, Paris, 1826), and vol. i. of the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (Madrid, 1846). Of Don Quixote in the original about 150 editions are known, and more than double that number of editions in other languages. The first worthy of the book was Tonson's (London, 1738, in 4 vols. 4to); other notable ones are the Academy edition (4 vols. 4to, Madrid 1780); Bowle's (6 vols. 4to, Salisbury and Lond. 1781); Pellicer's (5 vols. 8vo, Madrid, 1797-98); Clemencin's (6 vols. 4to, Madrid, 1833-39), with exhaustive commentary and notes; Hartzenbusch's, in vols. iii.-vi. of the complete works, and also in 4 vols. small 8vo. 1863, a beautiful pocket edition printed at Argamasilla, in the house which was, according to local tradition, the prison of Cervantes; in these last the editor has in many instances restored the text of the first edition, but in many also recklessly tampered with it. F. Lopez Fabra's (2 vols. 4to, Barcelona, 1871-74) is an admirable reproduction by photography of the first edition. The claim of Señor Ortego's edition (Palencia, 1884) to give corrections made by Cervantes himself cannot be seriously maintained. There are translations in fourteen languages. The oldest is the English by Shelton, made in 1608 and printed 1612 (second part, 1620), a vigorous but rude and inaccurate version. Other English translations are those of Phillips (1689), Motteux (1702), Jervas (commonly called Jarvis, 1742), Smollett (1755), A. J. Duffield (3 vols. 8vo, 1881), John Ormsby (4 vols. 8vo, 1885), and H. E. Watts (5 vols. 4to, 1888 et seq.). In French there are nine versions, besides abridgments: the oldest is Oudin's (printed in1616), the best Viardot's (1836). In German there are no less than thirteen, from the earliest in 1621 to the latest and best by Ludwig Braunfels in 1883–84. There are as many as ten Russian versions, but most of these are from the French, or abridgments. Franciosini's Italian version appeared as early as 1622, and has been followed by two others; and there are versions in Dutch, Danish, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Hungarian, Bohemian, Servian, and Greek. The best Life of Cervantes is by Navarrete; but there is also a good one by D.

CERVETRI

Geronimo Moran attached to the édition de luxe of Don Quizote, in 3 vols. imp. 4to, Madrid, 1863. Cervet'ri (from Care Vetus), a village of Italy, 19 miles WNW. of Rome, on the site of the ancient tare or Agulla, formerly one of the most important ties of Etruria. Conquered and degraded by the Romans in 353 B.C., it experienced but a brief renewal of prosperity under the empire as a watering place (the warm Bagni del Sasso, still used), and finally fell into decay in the 13th century. Many Etruscan remains have been found near by. Cervidæ and Cervus. See DEER. Cervin, MONT. See MATTERHORN. Cesalpino. See C.ESALPINUS. Cesarewitch. See CZAR.

Ce'sari, GIUSEPPE (sometimes called ARPINO), an Italian painter, born at Arpino about 1568, was greatly honoured by no less than five popes, and died at Rome, 3d July 1640. His works-in fresco and oil-display lively imagination, and great tact in execution.

Cesarotti, MELCHIORE, an excellent Italian teet, was born 15th May 1730, at Padua, where he filed the Greek and Hebrew chairs. He gained a reputation by his translation of Macpherson's 1763). The versification of this work, like that of his free translation of the Iliad, under the titue of La Morte di Ettore, was admired by Alfieri, and (esarotti unquestionably threw fresh life into Palian literature. He also wrote on the philosophy language and of taste. His Lingue (8 vols. 17 and Ragionamento sulla Filosofia del Gusto

are tits best works. He died 3d November 1808.

Cese'na, a town of Central Italy, 12 miles SE. of For by rail, with a cathedral and a trade in silk, wine, hemp, and sulphur. Cesena gave birth to Two Pius VI. and VII. Pop. (1881) 11,435. Here Murat defeated the Austrians, 30th March 1815. Ces nola, CoUNT LUIGI PALMA DI, archæolo 1st was born near Turin, June 29, 1832. He served with the Sardinian contingent in the Crimean war, went to New York in 1860, and served as a volunteer in the civil war. Appointed American consul at (virus in 1865, he commenced a series of excavatons which he continued for about ten years with the most remarkable success. His splendid collec. tion of statues and figures, lamps, vases, inscrip. tus, and other antiquities, was opened in New York in 1872 as the Cesnola Collection of Cyprian Antiquities, Doubts expressed in 1879 as to the authenticity of part of the collection were proved to tendless. His chief work is Cyprus, its ancient tatore, Tomtis, and Temples (1877).

Cespedes, PABLO DE, Spanish painter, born a (or lova in 1536, studied at Rome under Michael Alo and Raphael, and in 1577 became a preary at Cordova, where he established a school tart, and was also active as an architect, unter, and writer. He died 26th July 1608. Cess short for assess). See LAND-TAX. Cessio Bonorum (Lat. 'cession or surrender of 2××2 ), a process which the law of Scotland wwed from that of Rome, and which also ears in most of the continental systems. On nak nga surrender of estate to his creditors, the Ge for was granted a judicial protection from imprisonment in respect of all debts then due by him. As ever, imprisonment for debt was abolished the Debtors Act, 1880, except in the case of rates and taxes due, cessio as a process for the tection or liberation from imprisonment of inavent debtors is now practically obsolete. The Art of 1880, however, introduced a new process of reso, resembling sequestration, and really a cheap,

and summary method of distributing a small estate among the creditors. The petition must be presented in the sheriff-court either by a creditor or by the notour bankrupt himself. Notice is given in the Gazette, there is a meeting of creditors, the debtor is publicly examined, the sheriff grants a decree appointing a trustee and ordering the debtor to convey all his estate (except working tools, alimentary funds, and future acquisitions) to the trustee, who then ranks the various claims on the estate, subject to an appeal to the sheriff. A most important change was introduced by the Bankruptcy and Cessio Act, 1881, which provides for the first time that the debtor under a cessio may obtain a statutory discharge, but only if he pays 5s. per £1, or satisfies the sheriff that failure to pay such a dividend is not due to his fault. The process of cessio must be distinguished in some of its effects from the English and American assignment for the benefit of creditors under insolvent statutes. See BANKRUPTCY, SEQUESTRATION; Goudy on Bankruptcy (1886).

Cesspool. See SEWAGE.

Cestoid Worms (Cestoda), an order of flat worms (Plathelminthes), of internal parasitic habit, and generally known as Tapeworms (q.v.), The adult consists of an asexual head,' attached by hooks or suckers or both to the host, and budding off a long chain of flat sexual, hermaphrodite joints, which become mature at a certain distance from the head,' have a measure of individuality and independence, and are eventually expelled. There is no alimentary canal nor vascular system; the nervous system is usually com plex, but of a low order; there is a well-developed excretory system of branching tubes. The reproductive organs of the joints' are usually very complex. The liberated joints' or proglottides' break up, and set free embryos, which find their way into other hosts, and undergoing considerable change become bladder-worms, develop a head, or in some cases heads, and only become sexual when their host is in turn eaten by the original species in which the tapeworm flourished. There is thus an alternation of generations between the asexual bladder-worm and the sexual tapeworm. The order includes about 25 genera and 500 species, mostly parasitic in vertebrates. The genus Tania (tapeworm) includes more than half the known species. The Cestodes are linked to the flukes or Trematodes by forms like Amphilina, Caryophyllæns, and Archigetes, which have no joints, and a single reproductive system; and there is a well-marked series from these up to the most specialised Tania. Echineibothrium, Phyllobothrium, Anthobothrium, Bothriocephalus (q.v.), are the important genera Acanthobothrium, Tetrarhynchus, Ligula (q.v.), besides Tania. See TAPEWORMS; also BLADDERWORM, PARASITISM, and Leuckart's Parasites of

Man.

Cestracion, a genus of sharks, regarded as constituting a distinct family, Cestraciontidæ, although not more than four species are known as now existing. It is characterised by having two dorsal fins and one anal, the first dorsal situated over the space between the pectorals and ventrals; a spine forming the front of each dorsal; a short wide tail, with its upper lobe strongly notched beneath; the mouth at the fore end of the snout; spiracles distinctly visible, rather behind the eyes; and small gill-openings. The front of the mouth is armed with obtuse angular teeth, whilst the margins and inner surface of the jaws are covered with pavement-like teeth, presenting a general continuity of surface, as in skates, and disposed in rounded oblique scrolls-the former evidently adapted to the seizing of food, the latter to the

crushing and bruising of it. They are of obvious use with a diet of hard-shelled crustaceans and

A

Upper Jaw of Port-Jackson Shark (Cestracion philippi). molluscs. The front teeth are sharp in the young forms. The egg-case has two curious spiral ridges surrounding it. The Port-Jackson Shark, or Nurse' (C. philippi) of the Australian seas, and the Cat Shark of Japan and China (C. zebra), seem to differ chiefly in the patterns of colour. None exceed five feet in length. The Cestra ciontida are particularly interesting to geologists, for the oldest fossil sharks belong in great part to this family. The remains are found even in the Palæozoic strata; they become more numerous in the Carboniferous series; they are very numerous in the Lias and Chalk Outside view of formations; but there they cease Egg-case of almost entirely, the strata of the Cestracion Tertiary series containing scarcely philippi. any of them.' In modern times the species are reduced, as we have seen, to four at most, and other types of shark have become more prevalent. The fossil forms were abundant, also much larger, and the cestracions thus furnish a particularly good illustration of a decadent family.

Cestui que Trust, a person for whom another is a trustee. The term is Norman-French, and means in English law, and also in the United States, exactly what Beneficiary (q.v.) means in

Scots law.

Cestus (Gr. kestos, embroidered'), a girdle worn by Greek and Roman women, but at what part of the body is somewhat uncertain. It was worn apparently between the cingulum, which was a sash or girdle over the tunic just under the bosom, and the zone, worn mostly by young unmarried women lower down the body, just above the hips. According to Winckelmann, the cestus was itself worn round the loins; according to Heyne and Visconti, immediately under the bosom. The cestus of Aphrodite was covered with such alluring representations of the joys of love that she who wore it was irresistible. It was borrowed by Hera when she desired to win the love of Zeus. -CESTUS, or more correctly, CESTUS, the boxing gauntlets worn by the ancient prize-fighters, which consisted of leather thongs bound round the hands and wrists. They sometimes reached as high up as the elbows, and were armed with lead or metal bosses to increase the force of the blow.

Cetacea, an order of mammals, of aquatic habit and fish-like form. The head is large, the

CETEOSAURUS

neck indistinct; there is generally a median dor-al fin, and the tail has lateral flukes; the fore-limbs are reduced to paddles, the hind-limbs are at most represented by slight internal traces; the skin is smooth, and, with the occasional exception of a few bristles near the mouth, hairless; there is a thick layer of fat or blubber under the skin which serves instead of hair as a heat-retainer. The eve is small, there is no external ear, the nostrils are situated vertically. The bones are spongy and oily, the neck vertebræ are compressed and often fused, there is no union to form a sacrum. The skull is peculiarly modified, the brain-case being high, and the front part prolonged into more or less of a snout. There are no collar-bones; the bones of the arm are flattened and stiff; the joints of the second and third fingers are always above the normal number; the whole arm forms a flipper; the hip-girdle and hind-leg are degenerate. In one group teeth are absent except in the foetus, and are replaced by whalebone' growths from the palate; in no case is there more than one set of teeth. The stomach has several chambers; the intestine is simple. The liver is less divided than usual, and there is no gall-bladder. The bloodvessels form wonderful networks (retia mirabilia). The top of the windpipe is prolonged forwards so as to form, when embraced by the soft palate, a continuous air-passage from nostrils to lungs. The brain is large. The placenta is non-deciduate and diffuse.' The teats are two in number, and lie beside the female genital aperture; the milk is squeezed into the mouth of the sucking young.

The Cetacea are widely distributed in all seas and in some large rivers. They swim powerfully, and the tail works up and down, not sideways. They rise to the surface to breathe, and do not spout sea water from their blowholes. The expiration is periodic and violent, and the forcibly expelled air being laden with water, vapour may condense in a pillar of fine spray, or the ascending column may carry up some surface sea-water along with it, but it must be recognised that the process is simply that of ordinary expiration in peculiar conditions. They are mostly inoffensive, generally social in habit, vary from 4 to 60 feet in length, and feed on jelly-fish, crustaceans, pteropods, cuttlefish, fishes, and in one genus (Orca) on seals and on other whales.

Two very distinct series have to be distinguished -(a) the Toothed Whales or Odontoceti, and (b) the Baleen Whales or Mystacoceti. The former include Sperm Whales (Physeter), the Bottlenose (Hyperoodon), the genus Platanista and its allies, and the great family of Dolphins (q.v.). The latter sub-order includes the Right Whale ( Balana ), the Humpbacks' (Megaptera), and the Rorquals (Balanoptera).

In the Eocene, Cetacea are represented by primitive, less specialised forms, known as Zeuglodons, but the remains are, as one would expect, somewhat fragmentary, and the conclusions to be drawn from them very uncertain. In Miocene and Pliocene strata still more fragmentary cetacean remains have been found, and are grouped together in the genus Squalodon.

There is much doubt and dispute in regard to the origin and affinities of Cetacea. They are related by some to Carnivores, but the researches of Professor Flower have made it more probable that they have much closer affinities with Ungulates. He regards it as not unlikely that the whole group had a fresh-water origin. Fuller details must be sought under the article WHALE. See Flower's article Mammalia,' Ency. Brit.

Ceteosaurus (kētos, 'whale;' sauros, lizard'), a large dinosaurian reptile belonging to the Jurassic System (q.v.). According to Professor

CETEWAYO

Phillips, it may have reached a length of 50 feet, ani when standing at ease was probably not less than 10 feet in height and of a bulk in proportion. It appears to have frequented the marshes and river sides of the period, and to have been a vegetable-feeder. The word is also spelt Cetiosaurus. Cetewayo. See ZULUS.

Cetinje (also spelt Cettigné), capital of Montenero, lies in a rocky valley 2093 feet above sea level, and 17 miles E. of Cattaro, with which it is connected by a carriage road. It is the residence of te prince, and of an archimandrite, and consists of an unpretentious palace, a few private houses, an aby, gaol, arsenal, theatre (which serves also for the state library and national museum), hospital, theoloncal seminary, gymnasium, and a girl's high school, maintained at the charge of the Empress of Kasia Behind the palace is an elm, under which the prince delivers judgments. Pop. 1200.

Cetotolites, a name given by Owen to fossil ertacean ear-bones, which occur in great abundance in the Red Crag of Suffolk (see PLIOCENE). They are rubbed and water-worn, and have evadently been washed out of some earlier strata, which remain yet unrecognised. The extent of these earlier strata must have been very great, aving that the crag beds now extend over a large district in Essex and Suffolk, and attain a thick

in some places of not less than 40 feet. Professor Henslow in 1843 drew the attention of auitural chemists to this deposit as a source of raaterials for manure, and since then superphospate manures have been manufactured from it to i..e value of many thousand pounds annually; a striking example of the valuable practical results wch frequently flow from a purely scientific dis

Cette, an important seaport town of France, in the department of Hérault, is built on a neck of land between the lagoon of Thau and the Mediterranean, 23 miles SW. of Montpellier. The space insed by the piers and breakwater forming the hour can accommodate about 400 vessels; and tharbour is defended by forts. A broad deep Canal, lined with excellent quays, connects the port with the Lake of Thau, and so with the Canal du M and the Rhone, thus giving to Cette an extensive inland traffic; it has likewise an active frein commerce. The principal trade is in wine, ray, salt, dried fruits, fish, dyestuffs, perFaery, and verdigris. Cette has shipbuilding ans, salt-works, glass-works, factories for the manufacture of syrups and grape-sugar, &c. is a resort for sea-bathing, and has extensive tenes Colbert founded it in 1666. Pop. (1872) 25 181: (1886) 36,762.

It

Ceuta, a fortified port belonging to Spain, on the coast of Morocco, opposite Gibraltar. The town occupies the site of the Roman colony of Ad

tem Fratres, so called from the seven hills rising Ire in a group, of which the most prominent are Mates Almina and Hacho; on the latter, the abrent Abyla one of the Pillars of Hercules), is a ng fort, and on the former, among beautiful gardens, lies the New Town. Ceuta contains a ratral. a hospital, and convents, but is chiefly ed inportance as a military and convict station. The harbour is small, and exposed to the north, best has a lighthouse and some small trade. The mixed population number about 9700. The pare was a flourishing mart under the Arabs, who rapted its Roman name to Sebtah; there the 1st paper manufactory in the Western world is

several sieges by the Moors (1694-1720 and 1732), and is still the most important of the four African Presidios (q.v.).

Cevadilla. See SABADILLA.

Cévennes (ancient Cebenna), the chief mountain-range in the south of France. With its continuations and offsets, it forms the watershed between the river-systems of the Rhone and the Loire and Garonne. Its general direction is from north-east to south-west, commencing at the southern extremity of the Lyonnais Mountains, and extending under different local names as far as the Canal du Midi, which divides it from the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. The Cevennes extend for over 150 miles, through or into nine departments. The central mass lying in Lozère and Ardèche, where Mont Lozère attains 5584 feet, and Mont Mézene (the culminating point of the chain) 5754 feet. The average height is from 3000 to 4000 feet. The mountains consist chiefly of primary rocks, covered with tertiary formations, which in many places are interrupted by volcanic rocks. For the religious wars of which the Cevennes have been the arena, see ALBIGENSES, CAMISARDS, WALDENSES; and for a vivid description of the scenery and the peasantry, Mr R. L. Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879). Ceylanite. See SPINEL.

Ceylon (the Taprobane of the Greeks and Romans, and the Serendib of the Arabian Nights), an island and British crown colony in the Indian Ocean, to the south-east of India, from which it is

Walker & Boutail ra

Extreme length from north to south, from Point Palmyra to Dondera Head, 266 miles; greatest width, from Colombo to Sangemankande, 140 miles. Area, 24,702 sq. m., of which more than one-fifth is under cultivation.

Physical Features.-In natural scenery Ceylon can vie with any part of the world; and as it rises from the ocean, clothed with the rich luxuriance of a tropical vegetation, it seems to the voyager like some enchanted island of Eastern story. Its hills, 'draped with forests of perennial green,' tower grandly from height to height, till they are lost in clouds and mist. Near at hand, a sea of sapphire blue dashes against the battlemented rocks that occur at isolated points, and the yellow strands are shaded by groves of noble palms. In shape Ceylon resembles a pear, but its inhabitants more poetically compare it to one of their elongated pearls. Un dulating plains cover about four parts of the island, and the fifth is occupied by the mountain-zone of the central south, which has an elevation of from 6000 to 8000 feet above the sea-level. Pedrotallagalla, the highest mountain in the range, attains the height of 8260 feet; the celebrated mountain of Adam's Peak, 7420 feet; and the tableland of Nuwara Eliya, 6210 feet.

Geology.-The mountain-system is mainly composed of metamorphic rocks, chiefly gneiss, frequently broken up by intrusive granite. With the exception of some local beds of dolomitic limestone, the gneiss is everywhere the surface rock, and the soil is composed of its disintegrated materials. The northern part of the island is rising; and the immense masses of corals continually increasing, retain the debris brought from the Indian continent by the currents of the sea, and thus form a flat, ever-increasing madrepore plain.

Metals and Precious Stones.-Iron can be obtained in great quantities, and anthracite and rich veins of plumbago exist on the southern range of hills. Gold has recently been found. The gems of Ceylon have been celebrated from time immemorial. Sapphires, rubies, the oriental topaz, garnets, amethysts, cinnamon stone, and cat's-eye are the principal gems and precious stones of the island. The declared value of the precious stones exported is about £10,000 annually; but as large numbers are purchased by passengers calling at Colombo and by native merchants for sale in Southern India, the actual value is doubtless very far in excess of the sum named. The pearl-fisheries of Ceylon were known at a very remote date in the commercial history of the world. Under the Portuguese and Dutch governments, and now under the British government, the pearl-fisheries form a monopoly, and are under the inspection of an officer, who reports when a sufficient number of pearl-yielding oysters have reached maturity, and when the prospect of a successful fishing is thus probable. The fishings are intermittent and occur at irreg. ular dates. In 1863 the value of pearls obtained was £56,000; in 1874, it was £10,000; in 1877, £19,000; in 1879-80, £29,500; in 1881, £59,800; in 1887, £39,000; and in the intermediate periods between these dates there was practically no fishing at all.

Rivers. The most important river in Ceylon is the Mahavila-ganga. It has its source in the vicinity of Adam's Peak, and after draining more than 4000 sq. m., it separates into several branches, and enters the ocean near Trincomalee. The south side of the island is watered by ten rivers of considerable size.

Harbours.-Galle, at the southern extremity of Ceylon, and Trincomalee on the eastern coast, are the only natural harbours capable of containing ships of large draught. The construction of a breakwater at Colombo, the capital of the island,

which provides safe anchorage for ships of any size in all weather, has concentrated the commerce of the island there, and has also attracted from Galle the mail and passenger steamers from Europe, India, Australia, and China, which used to coal and tranship at Galle. At Trincomalee are the naval stores and dockyard, and the harbour is the finest in eastern waters.

In climate, Ceylon has a great advantage over the mainland of India, and as an island enjoys a more equable temperature. The average for the year in Colombo (q.v.) is 80° in ordinary seasons. April is the hottest month; and in May the southwest monsoon commences amid a deluge of rain, and continues the prevailing wind till October, when the north-east monsoon sets in: 80 inches is the average annual fall of rain, though in an exceptional year 120 inches have been registered. The beautiful tableland of Nuwara Eliya was first visited by Europeans in 1826, and is now used as a sanatorium. Here the thermometer in the shade never rises above 70°, while the average is 62°; the nights are cool and refreshing. The north of the island, including the peninsula of Jaffna, the plains of Nuwara-Kalawa, and the Wanny, may be reckoned as a third climatic division. Here the annual fall of rain does not exceed 30 inches, and irrigation is largely employed in agriculture.

Flora. The general botanical features of Ceylon are in many respects similar to those of Southern India. A very large number of the species of plants is, however, peculiar to the island. About 800 species (nearly 30 per cent. of the whole number found in Ceylon) are endemic—that is, found nowhere else in the world. The tree-vegetation of the forests is almost wholly composed of such endemic species, and not a few of endemic genera. The affinities and near alliances of these are with the plants of the Malay Islands and Peninsula. Hence, to speak more correctly, the flora of Ceylon partakes of an Indian as well as a Malayan character, but is identical with neither. As may be expected from the climatic peculiarities of the country the flora is greatly diversified. In the south-west mountainous parts of the island, with the exception of some grassy tracts called patanas and the plantations of tea, coffee, and cinchona, the slopes and summits are forest-clad. The trees are evergreen, with thick coriaceous leaves, growing closely together and forming dark jungles. The undergrowth is largely made up of gregarious plants known as Nilu, species of the genus Strobilanthes, which only flower at regular intervals of five, six, or seven years. Tree-ferns, often 25 feet in height, scarlet-flowering rhododendrons, numerous tufted bamboos, melastomads, and orchids are found in mountain forests. In the low country the vegetation is marked by the prevalence of palms, the cocoa-nut being pre-eminent. The beautiful areca-palm, the feathery jaggery or kitul, and the fordly talipat are the glories of Ceylon lowland vegetation. In the recesses of low-country forests the trees are high and closely packed. Amongst the timber-trees the most valuable are the calamander, satin-wood, and ebony. Two very interesting and peculiarly slender tree-ferns grow in the hot steamy forests of Ceylon, as also the most admired of Ceylon orchids, Dendrobium Maccarthia. There has been extensive cutting down of forest in the mountains of Ceylon to establish plantations, and the lowlands have suffered no less severely by the indolent and improvident practice of native cultivation. As a consequence numerous foreign weeds, such as the lantana, white weed, and Spanish needle, have established themselves to the exclusion of native vegetation in the hills; while in the lowlands coarse grasses and worthless scrub have