345 



WAYFARING NOTES IN RHODESIA. 

 By R. Fkank Rand, M.D., F.L.S. 



(Continued from p. 145.) 



The last notes were made in December, 1897, these in May, 

 1898. In this comitry December has the bloom and vigour of 

 youth ; it is May that is sere. It is winter, but, in spite of that, 

 at midday the sun is hot and the glare fierce. There is a cold bite 

 in the wind through all, and at sundown the temperature falls, to 

 reach its lowest before dawn. It is exceptional to have a calm day. 

 Of wintry aspect, such as we associate with the home winter, there 

 is little. Some of the trees, but these are few, have entirely shed 

 their leaves ; others partially. One sees many trees shedding a 

 profusion of dead leaves, and still carrying many that are autumn- 

 tinted or green. Others are in full green leaf. But in the case of 

 the herbaceous plants it is winter indeed. With few exceptions 

 these have bloomed, seeded, and gone, with scarce a twig of them 

 remaining. The grasses have seeded, and the winds have spread 

 their seed broadcast, as one finds to bitter cost, for most of them 

 are barbed, and penetrate clothing and skin to the confusion of all 

 personal comfort until released. The grass, leaf and stalk, is dry 

 and fawn-coloured. It is ripe for the first grass fire that may come 

 along, and these fires have already commenced (end of May). The 

 first fire often rushes through, leaving the larger stalks, which may 

 still retain some succulence, merely charred ; but these are con- 

 sumed in later fires, for the same area is often burned over several 

 times in a dry season. 



There is little but the dry bones of a season's dead vegetation 

 for the fires to feed upon, so that the havoc wrought is not so great 

 as one might be disposed to expect. That these fires have in the 

 past greatly modified the flora of Africa I think there can be but 

 little doubt, for certainly no herbaceous thing could face them and 

 live. They occasionally kill trees. Bush and shrub escape largely 

 from the fact that the grass lying among them is mostly of sparse 

 growth, so that its burning does them little damage ; further, they 

 are, many of them, at this time in green leaf, and not readily 

 inflammable. 



In places one sees patches of ground, sometimes many acres in 

 extent, covered with a low turf-like grass, but the grass of the 

 country generally is the strong, coarse, tropical growth which 

 springs in tufts, leaving a bare area of a few inches or so around 

 each tuft. When mature it has much the height of ripe wheat. 

 In some moist localities its growth is so rank and high that one can 

 only see over the top of it from horseback. 



Among the few herbaceous things that survive, Pretrea is re- 

 markable. It is, of course, well known, but some note of it as seen 

 amid its natural surroundings may be of interest. It was flowering 

 in December, and here and there the last flowers of its indefinite 

 inflorescence may still be seen. The proximal axils of the strag- 



JouRNAL OF Botany. — Vol. 36. [Sept. 1898.] 2 b 



