276 REV. R. BARON ON THE 
bamboo known as “ Volotsangana " (Cephalostachyum Chapelieri) 
is one of the most useful of all the vegetable products found in 
the forests. Itis used by the natives for all sorts of purposes, 
which it would be wearisome to enumerate. 
THE CENTRAL REGION. 
The Central Region, whose boundaries have been already 
defined, occupies the elevated plateau of the interior. Its height 
varies from about 2500 * to 8500 feet, the average possibly being 
about 4000. Speaking generally the Region consists of bare, 
brown, desolate, undulating moorlands which, from their lack of 
verdure, are extremely monotonous and dreary. Trees and 
shrubs are few aud far between ; green grass is only occasionally 
to be seen; and flowers possessing much beauty are scarce. 
There are, however, a few localities here and there to which this 
description will not apply, but these are mere oases in the great 
wilderness. The valleys in some places contain a few shrubs and 
trees, and several of them in the western portion of the Region 
are almost filled with the shrub Smithea chamechrista. A few 
patches of forest are also occasionally to be found, but they are 
so few and so small as to produce little change in the dreary 
aspect of the country. The Region for the most part is covered 
with coarse, wiry, brown grasses growing chiefly in tufts. Among 
the most common of these grasses are Pennisetum triticoides, 
Aristida Adscensionis, A. multicaulis, Setaria glauca, Andropogon 
Schenanthus, A. hirtus, and A. Cymbarius. The last two, especially 
A. Cymbarius, grow so thickly and to such a large size (10 or 12 
feet) in many of the uninhabited portions of the western part of 
the Region as to render travelling almost impossible. 
The Region includes numerous mountains, among which is 
Ankaratra, the highest in the island. It is an old much denuded 
volcano, and is therefore composed of lava, chiefly basaltic, which 
has flowed from the mountain and covered an area of country 
probably not less than 1500 or 2000 square miles. In some 
places there are large alluvial tracts, but with these and a few | 
other exceptions the soil consists of decayed gneiss and allied 
rocks, for the Central Region, as is the case also with the 
Eastern Region, is occupied by Crystalline (probably Archean) 
schists, chiefly gneiss. The Region, having been dry land for 
many geological periods, has suffered extensively from denuda- 
* The Mandritsara valley is even Jess than that. 
