The natives of British Central Africa

								

the damp crevices of rocks, and beside the streams. The asparagus and
parsley ferns, and a beautiful kind of large hart’s-tongue, with the tip
of the frond cleft in two, are among the more noticeable forms.
Though, as we have seen, there are no forests on a large scale, a fair
number of fine timber-trees are to be found. There is the mbawa, a kind
of mahogany, and the mpingo, or ebony, both of large size and handsome
growth, and the Mlanje cedar (really a Widdringtonia), the only
indigenous conifer, and growing nowhere but on that mountain. Its wood
is pale red, smooth, and deliciously scented. Most of the native wood
which can be used at all is hard and heavy, and somewhat difficult to
work; but the result, especially in the case of the cedar, is worth the
trouble. Another useful timber-tree, whose wood is never attacked by the
destructive borer-beetle, is the msuku (Napaca Kirkii), only found at
a height of over two thousand feet, and very common on the hills about
Blantyre. It bears the favourite wild fruit of the natives, consisting
of a skin and a quantity of large seeds, with a little sweet pulp, and
a moderate allowance of juice; what there is of it is so good that it
would be well worth cultivation. Other wild fruits are not so attractive
to the European palate. There is one about the size of an orange, with a
hard shell, and seeds embedded in a juicy pulp, slightly bitter, slightly
acid, and slightly sweet, and at the same time not unpleasant in flavour.
I believe the tree is a kind of Strychnos, consequently one would
expect the fruit to be poisonous, yet native children eat any quantity,
and seem none the worse.
The myombo, with leaves like our ash, is a very common tree, and the
one from which bark-cloth is usually obtained. The bark of the wild fig
is used for the same purpose.
The thorn-trees—acacias and mimosas—are among the most characteristic
plants of the country, and some of them have very handsome flowers. The
mlungusi, which has particularly vicious, hooked thorns, is sometimes
planted in hedges. Another tree which makes a very effectual hedge is the
cactus euphorbia. Of the same family (Spurges) are the weird candelabrum
euphorbia, growing in the hills, and a leafless, fleshy, pale-green
kind, often found in the villages, whose acrid, milky juice is used for
stupefying fish.
There is no season of the year quite without flowers, and no place in
which some kind or other is not to be found; but, of course, the best
time is the first few weeks of the rains. It would be hopeless to attempt
a description, or even a mere enumeration, of the lovely and wonderful
forms to be found side by side with familiar home growths, such as
buttercups, penny-royal, and self-heal. Some slight idea of what is to
be seen in the Shiré Highlands, and especially on Mlanje, where you
pass from tropical to temperate, and even to Alpine, vegetation, may be
gathered from the botanical chapter in Sir H. H. Johnston’s _British