society the Governor is President, the Board meeting monthly. Both European and native cultivators have taken up the work of the society with vigour, and the scientific staff of the Botanic Department are important and active working members. The membership of the principal society now numbers over 750, each of whom pays a subscription of Rs. 5 annually. Each member receives a copy of all the publications of the society. There are, besides, a considerable number of local branches, the members of which pay a small subscription, and each branch is affiliated to the parent society by a payment of Rs. 5. All papers of interest to small cultivators are translated into Sinhalese and Tamil, and the leaflets are distributed by the local societies to their members. A number of native gentlemen have thrown themselves heartily into the work, and undertaken various experiments under the advice of the Botanic Department There is thus equally from the planters of the hill districts and the planters of the plains a large number of stations devoted to experiments on present crops and new products that without expense to the public must produce results of great value in the near future.
The Legislature of Ceylon consists of a Legislative Council of seventeen members, the unofficial members being a Tamil member, a Kandyan, a Mohammedan, a low-country Sinhalese, a Burgher, a general European member, a planting member, and a representative ox the Chamber of Commerce.
Space will not admit of more than a mere mention of the rapid expansion of means of communication by railways. In 1867 the seventy-four miles of railway to Kandy was opened. There are now 562 miles of railway completed, the total cost of which up to December 31, 1904, was Rs. 74,782,727, the railway debt at that date being Rs. 40,894,489. The railway system, besides paying the interest and sinking fund on its debt, now contributes a considerable amount to the annual revenue of the Colony. At present a further extension
