BOTANY OF SOUTHERN RHODESIA. 489 
Silozi, which is the highest of them all, forms an unbroken 
boss of granite rising on the south-western limit of the hills 
bordering the so-called * Mopane country." It seems to 
dominate the whole range, though it can itself hardly be more 
than 800 feet above the level of the veld. The whole region 1s 
in the basin of the Crocodile River, several tributaries of which, 
flowing through the Hills, are fed by innumerable streams, 
which either flow over rocky beds or have cut deep gorges 
through the granite; on passing through the sandy veld they are 
reduced to deep pools in the dry season, the water pereolating 
underground, forming so-called “ sand-rivers.” The North- 
eastern region is very much better watered than about the 
Rhodes Estate, which is more to the west, resulting in a finer 
growth of trees; and there, in the wider valleys, large bog-areas 
occur, or so-called vleis, which, I was told, are more or less under 
water during and after the rains. The limits of these areas 
were well defined by the pretty blue flowers of Lobelia decipiens ; 
Xyris capensis, Pepalanthus Wahlbergii, Eriocaulon matopense, 
the terrestrial Utricularia transrugosa, with its showy mauve 
flowers, and in October the leafless spikes of Gladiolus Melleri, 
with flowers of a terra-cotta red, were scattered and general. 
The latter may also be said of Senecio tenellulus, S. erubescens, 
and Gerbera piloselloides, which were limited to the vleis. 
Utricularia Welwitschii and Genlisea africana were more local, 
also Lycopodium carolinianum. Where the edge of this vlei 
ground drained over a granite surface, it would be gay with the 
yellow Utricularia exoleta and the most minute U. Jirmula, 
Hypericum Lalandii, and the mauve heads of Denekia capensis 
and Lobelia minutidentata. It is in these bog-areas that most 
of the choicest bulbs come up as the rains commence. 
The veld is the same typical tree-veld, which appears to be 
the vegetative type for the whole country, broken here in many 
places, especially in the valleys, by so-called “old Kaffir lands,” 
where the ground was formerly under cultivation. The Kaffirs 
are continually moving their kraals, as the ground in the vicinity 
becomes exhausted; their “ gardens” can be seen all through 
the Hills under present cultivation, in some places covering 
large areas, by streams, and even up in the kopjes where there 
is sufficient space. The land is dug and some crops are sown 
at the end of the dry season. The trees are generally lopped, 
the natives not troubling to cut them down, and this practice, 
2x2 
