7(3 EEV. ALFEED T. BRYANT. 



red ochre, tliey have not yet discovered an actual dye. But 

 if they have not yet got as far as hair-dyes, they are ah-eady 

 possessed of a hair-restorer. Several diseases cause a falling 

 out of the hair of the head. To remedy this and render the hair 

 strong and its growth vigorous, they use a Avash made of the 

 pounded leaves of the uFitkuzela herb (Ocimum obovatum). 



Conclusion. 



I have now completed a list of some 240 Zulu mediciijal 

 plants, giving what the natives believe to be their properties 

 and the manner in which they use them. This may be about 

 as many as a good average native doctor will be acquainted 

 with. But it is far from being all. There are perhaps 

 another 240 named medicinal plants, of equal value, used in 

 different parts of Zululand and Natal, but not included here ; 

 and there is certainly quite another 240 which, although 

 possessing valuable curative qualities, have no distinguishing- 

 native names, being simply referred to by the generic terms, 

 such as iKhamhhi (medicinal herb), isiPhungo (cough-cure), 

 nmHlahelo (embrocation), isiMhingu (snake-antidote), and so 

 on. It is probable that we should not be far wrong if we 

 calculated the medicinal plants of Natal and Zululand, already 

 known to the natives, as being somewhere about 700 in all. 



So much, I think, will suffice for this, as I believe, the first 

 published contribution to the Zulu materia medica. A good 

 deal of investigation in this entertaining and, indeed, profitable 

 subject remains still to be done, especially in regard to the 

 botanical identification of the various remedial plants, the 

 exact symptoms they are capable of relieving, and the proj^er 

 doses in which they should be administered. But what I 

 have written here — the result of long, extensive and difficult 

 research — will at any rate point out the way to those desirous 

 of prosecuting still further inquiries into the domain of South 

 African medicine and medical plants ; and will prove to us, 

 moreover, that the native doctor, though still indeed groping 

 in the darkness of profound ignorance, is nevertheless groping 

 along quite in the right direction. 



