4 COL. GRANT—BOTANY ОЕ THE SPEKE AND GRANT EXPEDITION. 
of rivers in Northern India, and one dangerous one at Simon’s Bay, Cape of Good Hope; 
but this was the only part of our route where such a thing was observed. Also in this 
section of the country (Uyombeh) a marvellous seed-vessel was brought to me, so large 
(yet so light) I could not carry it; for ten years it defied me to get it named : at Kew the 
gentlemen were sceptical about it; at last I applied to Dr. Welwitsch, who produced a 
similar plant, and pronounced mine to be “ probably an Amaryllidaceous plant, between 
Buphane and Brunsvigia.” 
THE 98TH TO THE 108TH STAGE. THE USUI DISTRICT, ALT. 3447 To 4204 FEET ;— 
As this is different to any thing we had yet come across, it deserves a short paragraph 
to itself. Here we find that the strata (sandstone) of the country have been thrown up 
to an almost perpendicular wall or dyke, and appear to be 500 feet above the valleys. 
Behind these ridges, to the west, the country has been convulsed by volcanoes, and pre- 
sents a field of mounds with igneous and quartz rocks upon their slopes. We have no 
longer sand here, no longer any brackish or impure water; the latter is sparkling like 
crystal, it falls in cascades, and refreshes the traveller by its coolness. Forest there is 
none; but some rare plants were gathered, such as the Clematis chrysocarpa, Albizzia 
brachycalyx, Oliv., Viscum, Sp., Vitis Grantii, Acanthus arboreus, Sesamum, n. вр.; and 
the valleys had a sufficient supply of plantain, roots, grains, and cattle for the consump- 
tion of the inhabitants. 
THE 108TH TO THE 117TH STAGE. Тнк KARAGWEH DISTRICT, ALT. 4661 FEET :— 
This was the highest inhabited portion of our journey, and is a bleak, desolate region 
of steep hills, without firewood or shade, and having but a scant supply of water. The 
vegetation of its heights is of coarse grass, not fit for cattle (Anthisteria imberbis, Retz.); 
and brushwood shades the ravines; their slopes are strewed with fragments of hard sand- 
stone and igneous rocks. The valleys have lakes, rivers, and rivulets, which may be 
called the headwaters of the river Nile; on their borders we found plots of cultivation, 
consisting of plantain, Sorghum, sweet-potato, beans, peas, Sesamum, tobacco, chillies, 
bengan, tomato, the castor-oil plant, &c.; and there is a splendid flora in the valleys. 
Some of the newer plants were :—Crotalaria ononoides, Benth.; Tephrosia æquilata, 
Baker; Tephrosia eriosemoides, Oliv. ; Cassia falcinella, Oliv.; Dissotis canescens, Hook. Is 
‚ Dicoma, n. sp. 
I would briefly mention a peculiar formation of rock met with here. It was a square 
pillar of hard sandstone, 6 to 7 inches square, with four distinct bands of colour (purple- 
red, grey, flint-grey, and purple-red) in its transverse section. I found this same sedi- 
mentary rock in a softer and chalky state, streaked red and white. Other sandstone had 
the marks of small oblong and square substances having been deposited in them. This 
square form was quite new to us, though we had met with pebbles in sandstone while 
passing through the district of Usui. 
Tur 117TH то THE 150TH STAGE. THE NORTH-WESTERN SHORE OF THE VICTORIA 
NYANZA :— 
This extends from the river Kitangule, the largest feeder of the Victoria Nyanza, to 
the Uganda frontier, at 1° N. lat., and embraces the country for one degree upon either 
side of the equator. It has an aspect different from any thing yet met with. The whole 
tract bears the strongest evidence that it once was a plateau of 4000 feet high. The 
