VEGETATION NEAR KIROTO. 19 entirely new to me; having a stem about forty inches high, three to four inches thick (resembling that of the yucca), it grows to the height of about eight feet, the foliage dark green, rather broad, lily-like leaves two feet long, which, alternating with striking regularity, encircle with their bases more than half the stem. J have seen the plant only once since, between Lond and Kistiga, again in the neighbourhood of huts; yet I learn from the inhabitants that 1t is to be found here and there, and ' that the blossom is white.* In all directions well-worn paths cross the country, a testimony to the intercourse of the natives among themselves. A solitary Doléb palm marked the ascent close to Magtingo. The last part of the road to Kirdto is rendered almost impass-— able by the luxurious and entangled growth of grass; masses of reeds of imposing height and great breadth often intrude themselves between the grasses, and add not a little to the difficulties of the way. The bamboo proper is apparently not to be found here. Where there is an accumulation of water in the hollows of the ground, vegetation develops in overwhelming abundance. One is often compelled to use considerable strength in forcing one’s way through; and it is hot to suffocation in these thickets, in which the odour of decaying plants blends with the strong perfume of certain Composite. Strange to say, all animal life appears to die out of these grass forests during the day; one hardly hears the twittering of the birds or the distant trumpeting of the elephant; even the traveller is silent, and presses forward, anxious to reach some open space. At night, indeed, it is otherwise, as I often discovered during the previous year upon the endless prairie, over which one travels for five days between Fatiko and Fauvera. No sooner does the moon flood its silver light upon the grass waving in the night breeze, no sooner do fantastic shadows close around the traveller, than the land is filled with ghostly life. There is a rustling and a surging; the spell is broken—the animal world awakes. OW Near Kiréto grow lofty Spathodez, with their magnificent * This plant is easily recognised in a photograph of a group of trees which was taken by Richard Buchta on the Somerset Nile, and which has been published by him in his ‘*‘ Album of Photographs.” —G. 5S.