32 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



we were told that Tanganyka was the highest mountain on 

 that continent. Now, ahnost under the equator are found 

 the subhme Ruwenzori a range about thirty miles in length 

 rising to 20.000 feet in altitude. This tremendous height, 

 surpassing the Swiss Alps, it will be observed, is not so very 

 far short of the Himalayas — except their very highest peaks. 

 To conceive of these figures, let one remember that Mt. Wash- 

 ington is but a little over 6.000 feet — a mole-hill to these 

 grander mountains. 



The equatorial situation of the Ruwenzori carries its flora 

 to a great height and gives one a grand opportunity to study 

 altitudinal zones as contrasted with those of longitude. Nat- 

 urally at the middle elevations it assumes a temperate char- 

 acter, while the sub-alpine region is carried far above the 

 alpine or even lifeless districts of our higher hills. One finds 

 buttercups, for-get-me-nots, brambles, sunflowers, anemones 

 and the like as high as 10.000 or 15,000 feet above the sea. 

 Mingled with the familiar temperate types, however, are pe- 

 culiarly African forms. Most startling to the reader, as 

 they must be to the observer, are giant Lobelias, from ten to 

 fifteen or twenty feet in height. Fancy a cardinal flower be- 

 coming almost a tree — and clothed with gorgeous flowers. 

 They are not unique in flowers alone, but most extraordinary 

 in appearance. As the long-pointed dracaena-like leaves fall 

 in succession the lower part of the stem is left bare, so the 

 plant, with its tuft of foliage and flowers looks precisely like 

 a dragon tree, the shape of the blossoms, alone, giving it 

 away. 



This is a very suggestive fact. It shows how types have 

 persisted for countless ages all over the world and how envir- 

 onment has acted to differentiate them. Also it points out 

 conclusivelv that some time or other, in an extremelv remote 

 period, there was more intimate connection of lands than now. 

 Even the tyro in science recognizes a Lobelia, be it here or 



