298 ME. W. MITTEK OX MOSSES AND 



The Mosses and Hepaticse collected in Central Africa by the late 

 Eight Eev. James Hannington, Bishop of Mombasa, F.L.S,, 

 F.G.S., &C., with some others, including those gathered 



r 



by Mr./4l. H. Johnston on Kilimanjaro. By William 



MiTTEK, A.L.S. 



[Eead 3rd June, 1886.] 



(Plates XV.-XIX.) 



During his first journey from the coast opposite Zanzibar to the 

 Lakes, the Bishop, then known as the Bev. James Hannington, 

 collected many very small specimens, chiefly on the Usagara 

 Mountains and in the forest of Ugogo ; many of these were 

 entirely barren, and have not yet been identified with any de- 

 scribed African species ; and they seem to indicate a region not 

 abounding in Mosses or Hepaticse. In the Usagara the conditions 

 must have been more favourable, for he sent thence by letter 

 many Ferns ; but at the time he despatched these his health had 

 been so broken down with the hardships and privations of the 

 journey through a country so deficient in food and water, that he 

 had ^uite given up all hope of being able to return to the coast. 

 This, however, he eventually did ; and during the voyage home, 

 and more rapidly after, regained his usual health. 



Induced to return as Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, 

 with residence at Mombasa, the importance of finding a better 

 rout to the Missionary station in Uganda must have seemed to 

 him, who had experienced the miseries of the older road, a matter 

 of urgency. Being a man possessed of great courage and the 

 faculty of winning others to do as he wished, he soon made an 

 attempt to ascend Kilimanjaro. On his return from this expe- 

 dition he wrote from Mombasa (May 13, 1885) : — " I only got Up 

 to about 8800 feet ; I wanted to get to the snow-line, and made a 

 desperate struggle , but the ascent is so gradual, that it takes 



such a dreadfully long time. I started from about 5000 feet, 

 and walked from morning till 4 p.m, with scarce any stoppages, 

 and then never got out of the dense forest-tangle. The same 

 Mosses seem to me to crop up here as in Usagara ; my plants all 

 got spoilt with the intense rain, the Mosses running a very narrow 

 shave, and many are discoloured. The rainfall has been very ter- 



