6 COL. GRANT—BOTANY OF THE SPEKE AND GRANT EXPEDITION. 
ganotænia, Brehmia, Ximenia terminalia, Bassia, Lophira, Sclerocarya, Hexalobus, 
Carissa, Sarcocephalus, Landolphia, Dombeya, Boswellia, Balanites, Cadaba, Trichilia, 
Crateva, Stereospermum, Celtis, Khaya, Boscia salicifolia, Oliv., Cochlospermum ni- 
loticum, Polygala acicularis, Oliv., Harrisonia abyssinica, Crotalaria Grantii, Baker, 
Tephrosia. rigida, Baker, Sterculia, Albizzia, Detarium, Gardenia, Strychnos, Hyphene, 
Acacia. 
We found that plantain and the cultivation of the Manihot utilissima had entirely 
ceased; but grains and roots, already mentioned, took their places. 
In concluding these remarks on the aspect of the country, I would beg to mention to 
future explorers in botany, that there is a vast new field for their labours under the 
equator and to the southward, to which, in consequence of ill-health and unsuitable- 
ness of the season for collecting, I could pay no attention. | 
From Gondokoro, at 5" N. lat., to Cairo, the Nile is very uninteresting when compared 
with its course further up. Тһеге was а sameness in the vegetation, in the flatness of 
the country, and in the muddy, sluggish stream, that made our journey by boat tame 
and monotonous. There was опе exception to this, at lat. 214° N., where we crossed the 
desert, and found a country upheaved into ridges and crags of slate; and there I saw a 
new species of palm tree. The fruit which I gathered, unfortunately, did not propagate 
at Kew; but a description of the species will be found in its proper place. 
In the whole course of the journey I could not fail to be deeply interested in every 
plant I met with; for all were new to me. АП the roots, herbs, and grains eaten in 
periods of famine by the people, all the medicinal plants used by them, with the woods 
employed in economic purposes, all were of interest. I have watched the natives in the 
forest searching for roots to satisfy their hunger, the starving poor gathering the seeds of 
natural grass as food, the poor women carrying home loads of rank-looking mushrooms 
for their families, the Veltheimia of the swamp being boiled as a vegetable, the medicine- 
men waving a plant in the air to charm away the evil eye, the making of wine from the 
plantain, the making of ropes from the palm, the camel eating the star-thistle* of the 
desert, and the leaf + which the sand-bee converts into her cells. Having witnessed this 
without any suspicion or rude remark on the part of the natives, I feel it is but due to 
them to mention the fact, and to add that they rendered me every assistance in their 
power by giving me the names and uses of any plant they knew, never interfering with 
me in the collecting or the examination of them. | 
It was my custom to attach a numbered ticket оға label to every dried specimen, the 
number corresponding with notes made upon the plant collected; and when I had the 
satisfaction of seeing my plants classified at Kew, this method, which gave little trouble, 
Was of great service; and I cannot recommend it too strongly. 
. In ascertaining the uses of plants I was assisted by several of our African followers, 
who travelled with us from Zanzibar to Cairo. One of these men (Manua, a native of 
Unyamezi) had an extraordinary knowledge of р 
those he knew and those that he ha 
d not previously me; with. I am sorry to say that 
Manua is since dead. 
* Centaurea calcitrapa, L. + Stereospermum, sp. 
lants and trees, discriminating between ` ` 
