387 



mens received at Berlin, imperfect as tliey were, were described at 

 once by Professor Alexander Braun and tbe Curator of tbe Berlin 

 Botanic Garden, C. Boiiche, and named after Hildebrandt, This 

 was in 1874.* Subsequently wben the plants bad recovered from 

 the journey and been supplemented by further material/ more 

 complete accounts were published by A, Braunt and Professor 

 Eicbler-J It is not exactly known where Hildobrandt collected 

 his first specimens, and Braun^and Bouche merely define the area 

 of the species as coA'cring ^^ the coast of Zanzibar and to the north 

 as far as Mombasa/' In 1877 Kirk made a rapid journey to the 

 outer TJsanibara Hills, opposite the island of Pemba, when he 

 wrote (October 12tli) to Sir Joseph Hooker: *^ The country on the 

 inarch from the coast to the hills was like the maritime region of 

 East Africa generally, the chief points of interest being the Pa7i- 

 damts of a species I do not recognise and the Encephalartos I sent 

 you seeds of • ... I had imagined this Enccphalartos to be 

 beyond, rather to the mountains. I see at Tanga that it is rather 

 native of the maritime plains, elevation from 200-500 feet only, 

 on coral metamorphic limestone.'' Hildebrandt had meanwhile 

 made several expeditions to Mombasa, and in his narrative, 

 published in 1879, he stated that (in 1876) he found the hills 

 (Jurassic limestone) near Shangamue, that is, between the Durum 

 hills and the Fimboni Valley, about 12 miles N.W. of Mombasa, 

 covered Aviih short grass and Acacias and scattered plants of 

 EiicephaJartos Hildehrandtii. ^' Their shining stems,'' ho 

 says, '^rise to 5 m. The wide spreading, dark green crown 

 of raucronate fronds protects the large fruiting cones, the 

 farinaceous seeds of which serve as food in times of famine/* 

 The most striking plant associated with it in that region is 

 the Borassus paJm, whose columnar trunks attain double 

 the height of the Encephalartos. In 1878 Kirk at last succeeded 

 in sending home a male stem in good condition, 1 foot thick and 

 3 feet long, measuring with its fronds 12 feet- It came from 

 Tanga, or from some point on the coast opposite Pemba. This 

 specimen is still in vigorous health, the stem measuring 1 m. in 

 height and 0-37 m. .in diameter, whilst the fronds rise to 2;4 m. 

 above it, being up to 2*25 m. long- At the same time he mentioned 

 having been told of stems as much as 12 to 14 feet high, and in a 

 later letter he sjieaks of having seen one 20 feet high and of great 

 thickness, adding '' it will cost a little to get them here and send 

 them thence, I shall have to hire a native vessel and lower them 

 with ropes, and it will require, I should say, fifteen or twenty men 

 to each one, they are so thick and heavy." This giant he saw 

 when at the north end of the island. Some months later 

 (February, 1879) he returned there, and this is the account ho 

 gives of the* singular condition under which the Encephalartos 

 grows, illustrating it by a photograph of a whole plant in its 

 habitat and another of the male and female cones collected on that 



♦Encephalartos Hildebrandtii, A. Braun & Bouch^, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol 



(1874) 8. 



1876 



t Eichler in Monatschr. Ver. Beford. GartenW xxiu. (1880) ..0. 



§ Proceed. Geogr. Soc. xxii. 449, and Engl. Pflanzenwelt Ost.-Afr. I. A. 173, 



n2 



