49 



NEW AFEICAN PLANTS. 

 (Plates 355, 856.) 



Dr. a. Donaldson Smith has lately presented to the British 

 Museum a collectiou of plants made during his expedition through 

 Somaliland to Lake Rudolf in 18!34:-95. Unfortunately many of 

 the specimens were injured by damp, but those which remain are 

 of considerable interest. Messrs. E. G. Baker and Rendle have 

 worked out some of these, and have described the following novelties, 

 in addition to the two Ipomoeas described on pp. 36, 37. 



Dr. Donaldson Smith gave a lecture on his travels before the 

 Eoyal Geographical Society on Jan. 6th, in the course of which he 

 said that during a sporting trip in Somaliland over two years ago 

 he conceived the idea that he could carry an expedition across that 

 large extent of unexplored country lying between the Shebeli river 

 and Lake Eudolf, with Somalis as a guard, and camels and pack 

 animals. Accordingly he came back to England, and set to work 

 to fit out an expedition, engaging the services of Mr. Edward 

 Dodson, a young taxidermist at the British Museum. Accompanied 

 by Mr. Gillett, they set sail from London on June 1st, 1894. On 

 July 10th they were able to give the order to march from Berbera. 

 They were soon across the hundred miles of bushy, waterless 

 plateau-land called the Haud, and found themselves at Milmil, in 

 the Ogadain country. As their route lay directly west, it was 

 principally through a rough country. The Ogadain was dry, like 

 the rest of Somaliland ; the wells and pools of water in the river- 

 beds were far apart, and to the south-west the water was brackish. 

 This was not the case, of course, during the spring and autumn 

 rains, but it was astonishing how quickly the country assumed its 

 half-parched appearance after the rains had ceased. The country 

 became gradually more interesting as it was more unknown. They 

 had one march of three days through a waterless, hilly country, 

 called Sibe. There was no crossing the Ezer, owing to the great 

 rocky walls that surround it, so they had to march down Turfi tug 

 to its junction with the Shebeli river. The Shebeli was flooded, 

 and it was all they could do to cross it. As they progressed they 

 only found a few poor villages of a hundred souls each, the natives 

 presenting the most abject appearance imaginable. The remnant 

 of a great tribe, they were the Arusa Gallas, and their native land 

 extended fifty miles west of the Shebeli river. On Sept. 17th they 

 arrived at Luku, where they were astonished to find a stone tomb 

 erected to a Mohammedan, Sheikh Abai Ezied; and a few days later 

 they reached the imposing tomb of Sheikh Husein. There were five 

 other white tombs of sheikhs scattered about the hilltop on which 

 the town is situated, making quite a gay appearance. The Abyssinian 

 General in command of this country, Wal-da-Gubbra, requested the 

 presence of the leaders of the expedition at Ginia, and showed them 

 every honour. 



After waiting at Ginia for a mouth for the permission of King 

 Menelek to proceed, they decided to start secretly, but, after jour- 



JouRNAL OF Botany. — Vol. 34. [Feb. 1896.] e 



