738 ZONES AND REGIONS [Pt. Ill, Sect. IV 



and the bulging cushions of Hypnum involvens, Dicranum Stuhlmanni, Neckera 

 Hoehneliana and N. platyantha. At the base of the tree-stems, especially of all the 

 thicker ones, and often up to a height of ten meters or more, associated with the 

 above-mentioned cryptogams, are more highly organized plants, such as ferns, Lyco- 

 podia, a few orchids, Peperomiae, Streptocarpus montanus, and others, usually in 

 such profusion that not a speck of the bark, which serves as a substratum, is seen.' 



The alpine region (from 2,600 to 3,000 meters up to the summit) is 

 covered below by a steppe-formation, which Volkens 1 describes as follows : — 



'Viewed from a distance or from above, it appears like a continuous grassy sward, 

 but on traversing it one soon perceives that this is not the case. The tussocks of 

 grass are isolated, although very close together, but there is always space between 

 them to allow of one's foot reaching the ground. Let us examine the tussocks of 

 grass more closely. There are cushions from the size of one's fist to that of a plate, 

 from which leaves shoot up straight or are bent backwards towards the ground, and 

 above these, up to one's knee, rarely up to the chest, are haulms waving in the wind. 

 Most of them are true grasses ; by far the commonest, frequently almost alone 

 prevailing over large areas, is Eragrostis olivacea ; isolated, or usually springing up 

 in smaller or larger patches, are Koeleria cristata, Trisetaria quinqueseta, Setaria 

 aurea, Andropogon exotheca, Festuca abyssinica, and Deschampsia caespitosa. Cypera- 

 ceae however are not lacking, for everywhere, occasionally more or less prominent, 

 and projecting between the grassy panicles, are the globular inflorescences of Fim- 

 bristylis atrosanguinea, Cyperus Kersteinii, and Ficinia gracilis. But what is there 

 between the tufts of grass in the network that embraces them on all sides, like 

 a meandering river-system formed of rills, and over which their waving leaves cast 

 shade ? In the dry season, bare soil or a mat of mosses and lichens, but during and 

 for a short time after the rainy season, a host of flowering plants, which with the 

 grasses transform the surface into the thickening sward of an alpine meadow. 

 First come, as everywhere, bulbous and tuberous plants, Monocotyledones in general : 

 Hypoxis angustifolia, resembling our yellow star of Bethlehem (Gagea lutea), the 

 violet Romulea campanuloides, the flesh-coloured Hesperantha Volkensii and 

 Dierama pendulum, the orchid Disa polygonoides, the blue Aristea alata resembling 

 a Scilla, and the puny Holothryx pleistodactyla, at first consisting of only two flesh}' 

 orbicular leaves lying flat on the ground. Later on, but also with these, dicotyle- 

 donous herbs appear, Swertia pumila and Sebaea brachyphylla, representing our 

 mountain gentians, a dainty hare-bell, Wahlenbergia Oliveri, Lathyrus kiliman- 

 dscharicus, Cerastium vulgatum, Lightfootia arabidifolia, Bartsia abyssinica, and the 

 two Compositae, Tolpis abyssinica and Conyza subscaposa, that remind one of hawk- 

 weeds. But the most beautiful of all is Helichrysum Meyeri Johannis and the allied 

 H. Lentii (Fig. 436), for in August and September the silvery-purple capitula of 

 these everlasting-flowers raise themselves above the tussocks of grass in thousands, 

 so that they could be mowed, and are scattered over its bright green carpet like 

 snowy sheets of shimmering stars.' 



The few trees growing isolated on the alpine savannah of Kilimanjaro are only 

 5-8 meters high : they exhibit irregular growth and for the most part slope towards 

 the south-west away from the autumnal storms. Many of them are dead. Their 



1 Volkens, op. cit., p. 311. 



