87 
in the country, nor ‘would it be possible to export any such if it 
existed. A species of the cotton plant (Gossypium Stocksii, var.) 
is indigenous, but not cultivated. Of other fibre-yielding plants, 
a species of Sansevieria, one of which produces the “ bowstring 
emp” of commerce, is used locally by the natives for making their 
fishing-nets, it grows freely along the banks of the Tamalakan and 
Botletli Rivers, as also does the new aloe (Aloe Lugardiana, Baker) 
described in Kew Bulletin, 1901, p. 135. There are many 
indigenous species of the genus Indigofera. But plants of economic 
value would seem to be sparsely represented. 
A feature of much of the vegetation is its thorny nature ; apart 
from the many species of thorny acacias and “ wait-a-bit” thorn 
bushes (Zizyphus mucronata), which form in places an almost 
impenetrable thicket with every kind of straight and backward 
thorn, many of the smaller plants bristle with thorns on stem an 
branch, even on leaf, or calyx or seed-pod. Of most of the smaller 
plants the flowers are inconspicuous both as regards size and colour- 
ing, but there are several beautiful flowering-shrubs, e.g. Bauhinia 
macrantha, Rhigozum linifolium, Catophractes Alexandri; lilies 
(Crinum and Pancratium) in countless thousands, of which the new 
species (Crinum rhodanthum, Baker)—described in Dyer’s Flora of 
Tropical Africa, vol. vii, p. 397, and illustrated in the Botanical 
Magazine for June 1901—is of exceptionally brilliant colouring ; 
The light soil supports many grasses, belonging mainly to the 
genera pss eto ae Aristida (Br. Schénland before 5. A. Asso- 
ciation, 1904), well-suited for stock, and of the grasses prepa 
the following List most of them would probably be of value sr 
pasture. It would seem that for pastoral purposes alone is the country 
valuable. Away from the river-area, in these waterless and un- 
inhabitable stretches of the Kalahari Desert, as Mr. Selous —— 
in his recent paper before the African Society, the giraffe and other 
big game will find a safe retreat for many yea Unfortunately the 
ecies of big game once 
‘ h x frica down 
while within reach of the river-area zebra, 
roan, tsessebi, impala, springbuck, bushbuck, and reedbuc 
