62 DR. C. MELLER’S JOURNAL 
gala used by the natives as medicine for gastric irritation, and a 
blue-flowered small Solanum the leaves of which are eaten as a 
vegetable by the natives, who call it ^Bred." Itis sold in bundles 
in all the marketplaces. Encircling the bushes, pendent from small 
trees and shrubs, is a Lycopodium with fringed leaves, the fringe 
turning black when developed into spores; the edges of the young 
leaves are entire. It is found from this lake to 3500 feet alt., 40 
miles from the capital. A wild Raspberry spreads over acres of 
land near the lake, and lines the path in all moist parts of the 
journey till approaching the capital, and the dry red soil 40 miles 
south of it. Both leaves and fruit are used as medicine, bruised 
and mixed with rice-water, emollient and expectorant. 
The canal leads to the first village on the ascent, Maromby, 
the land round about which is constantly moist, almost alluvial. 
Abundance of rice is grown. Near this village were copses of 
Vangueria, and, around it and almost every village stopped at, a 
Heliconia, with pink offshoots or sprouts near the root, which are 
eaten by the natives. In the canals and pools, here and elsewhere, 
grows a Lotus (Nymphea) with a blue flower; the bulb is in much 
request by the natives, who prepare from it a kind of sago. After 
leaving this lake and low district, the road leads over hills, hill 
rising beyond hill, the land mammillated with them ; and truly the 
cattle seem grazing on a thousand hills. The ravines are filled 
with the Traveller’s Tree, Bananas, and the Rofia Palm (Sagus 
Ruffia). The soil at the bottom of these ravines is very rich, 
and the vegetation most luxuriant—differing much from that at 
the highest elevation reached, where, from rockiness of the soil 
and absence of water, scarcely a plant thrives, and artificial aids 
are had recourse to, to enable the natives to grow their rice. As 
we ascend the country, the Rofia grows more abundantly, and the 
Ravenala less. The sides of valleys, and ultimately the crests of 
hills, become clothed with dense bush of a Composite tree with 
orange flowers, and two forms of Arbutus (?), both common at the 
Cape. The rivers crossed for the first 40 miles from the sea had 
fine-sandy bottoms, subsequently quartz and sand, and quartz and 
débris of sandstone. 
Studding the hills, or standing out in solitary boulders, were 
masses of sandstone, the exposed surface blackened. The hills are 
well covered with a coarse grass, growing in tufts, amongst which 
is found an Apocyneous herb avoided by the cattle (the same as 
found up the Zambesi). On the second day's journey from the 
sea, and at about 1500 feet above it, is the village Ranumafain, 
