4 MR. C. F. M. SóWYNNERTON ON 
Conopharyngia Stapfiana, with handsome white flowers, is also characteristic 
of the higher portions of the mountain, while in a sheltered spot a few 
hundred feet down a number of the common Melsetter Philippia (P. Simi) 
attained a quite unusual size, being thirty feet or more in height. Тһе 
undergrowth is rich and varied, the most noticeable species being Cephalanthus 
natalensis, with its edible raspberry-like fruit, while a handsome Aphloia 
witn creamy flowers (A. theew/formis), beds of ferns and mosses border the 
streams that wind down to the Haroni and Lusitu. The actual summit of 
the mountain is extremely stony and partly covered with a dense growth of 
fleshy-leaved aloes, and it is from this point more than from any other in the 
district that a good general idea of the varied nature of the country can be 
obtained. То the east is spread out the whole rugged Chimanimani, cut off 
almost abruptly at its southern end by a fall of several thousand feet into the 
Haroni-Lusitu gorge. To the north and west are the grassy mountains of 
Northern Melsetter already described. To the south-west, separated from us 
by the deeply-cut gorge of the Lusitu, are the lower and more rolling hills of 
Southern Melsetter, with their long grass, dotted with stunted clumps of 
Parinarium, their occasional open woods of Brachystegia and many other 
trees of similar growth, their fine perennial streams, and, especially on the 
eastern border, which catches the bulk of the rainfall, occasional handsome 
forest-patches. The general elevation of this piece of country varies from 
3000 to 4000 feet. 
Turning to the south-east, we find spread out far below us the yet lower 
jungle-covered hills of the Mafusi and Makwiana country across the Portu- 
guese border, a great square tract which includes the broad flat Chikambogé 
valley. This tract is bounded far to the south by the Buzi River, and on the 
east by the fine precipitous Sitatonga Hills, far lower than the Chimanimani, 
but by their isolation almost as striking. Their eastern face is covered with 
dense and fairly high forest abounding in elephants, and descends (far more 
gradually than on the western side) through an unusually bad tsetse-fly area 
into the low veldt proper. On the occasion of my visit to that portion of the 
lowlands in June 1900, I unfortunately did no botanising, but I remember 
being struck by the unusual wealth of water-lilies (of our common blue 
species) which filled the large pools of the Amanzimhlope water east of the 
Sitatonga Forest, as well as by the fineness of a few of the palms (//yphene 
ventricosa) of the same neighbourhood. The open woods which covered 
the rest of the country beyond the forest, and which at the time of my visit 
abounded in large game, were of much the same type as those which I shall 
describe for the country to the south of the River Buzi. 
The Mafusi tract, except for a few of the higher hills on the Anglo- 
Portuguese border, contains, in addition to three or four handsome but small 
forest-patches, a good deal of dense bush. This is exploited annually by the 
