THE FLORA OF GAZALAND. 9 
ascent now brought us to the top of the Zinyumbo Hills, which are covered 
with comparatively short grass and stunted scattered bush, but the Khaya 
and Zrythrina tomentosa occurred along a dry watercourse. On once more 
descending towards the Mwangezi River the vegetation became far richer. 
The river itself isa typical African stream, with great muddy pools surrounded 
by rock and mud-banks and connected only by a trickle, but the banks were 
bright green with the dense and luscious growth of a species of Sorghum. 
From Singuno right through to Chimbuya, which is three miles east of the 
Mwangezi, Diplorhynchus mossambicensis was common and in many parts the 
dominant tree, but from Zinvumbo’s Kraal on Dalbergia melanoxylon became 
fairly abundant, while throughout the hills Bauhinia reticulata, mostly stunted, 
and Bauhinia Galpini were present in considerable numbers, to say nothing 
of an ubiquitous Combretum. A palm, Hyphene ventricosa, in a stunted 
form was first noticed on the Zinyumbo Hills, but I met with the first 
really good specimens with a bulge in the stem at Chimbuya. 
From here on to Inyajena’s Kraal the whole country was flat or slightly 
undulating and covered with open bush, sometimes tall, sometimes low, 
but never dense, and the soil was a black alluvial, lightening in the higher 
parts to a deep chocolate-brown with frequent outerops throughout of reddish 
water-worn stone and gravel with quartz. The few dry stream-beds crossed 
were marked by larger and darker-green trees, not so fine however as on the 
Umswirizwi. On crossing the Umtefu, dry except for one or two small 
pools, the vegetation became more familiar, consisting chiefly of Acacia capra 
and Bauhinia reticulata, with some Albizzias and a few fair-sized trees of 
Peltophorum africanum, Kigelia, and other species. From the Umtefu to 
Inyajena and on thence for a short distance, the soil is entirely of the black 
alluvial type, and must be very swampy in the rains. The whole country 
was now thoroughly parched up and the heat was intense, the scattered dry 
bush affording no shade whatsoever. Acacia сарга was on the whole the 
commonest tree, but а Combretum was present in considerable numbers. 
However, on reaching Chibabava we for the first time struck the Buzi River, 
and the vegetation at once underwent a change. Acacia caffra was still very 
common, and an occasional big baobab (Adansonia) was seen; but on the 
rich soil that extended back for some distance from the river were numbers 
of magnificent spreading and shady trees of Trichilia emetica, Sterculia, 
Triphaca, Kigelia, Lecaniodiscus, and other genera, while the actual steep 
river-bank, here in many parts about 40 feet high, was clothed sometimes 
with a rich growth of Sorghum, Anatherum muricatum, ete., sometimes with 
dense thickets of Grewia, a Croton, and other small trees and climbers. 
The water's edge and the small islands in the river were often covered 
with a growth of tall reeds and Sesbania punctata, the twigs of the 
latter thickly hung with the nests of weaver-birds (J7yphantornis aureus 
