ARBORICULTURAL NOTES FROM PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA, 199 
the gum copal tree of the east coast. Bowkeria sp. is a common 
tree. It is used for canoes, and the ash is very white, contain- 
ing a large proportion of potash. Some of the common large 
trees are Ficus capensis (Thb.), #. cordata (Thb.), & Vogelit 
(Mig.), and / asperrima (Roxb.). They are used for canoes. 
In passing, I may mention that the country is rich in pasture 
grasses, there being over fifty species on the coast belt, and 
large herds of cattle are now to be seen. Fever and tsetse fly 
are unknown, 
In the Inhambane and Delagoa Bay districts, the land rises 
almost from the sea, so that it is only at a few points, and on 
the river banks for some distance, that mangrove swamps can 
be formed. The cover is mostly low, thorny scrub, consisting of 
Acacia, Capparis, Zizyphus, Vitis, Abrus, Cassia, Carissa, Ipomea, 
and some of the coarse grasses. As seen from the sea, the 
Inhambane neighbourhood, with its beautiful land-locked bay, 
is almost an entire grove of cocoanut palms. No forest cover 
nor timber-trees are to seen. Palms and cashewnut trees 
cover the country for many miles inland.- Only in the far 
interior, commencing at sixty miles inland, do clumps of forest 
appear; but to give a description of that area is outside the 
limits of this paper. The country is very populous, and the 
chief industry is in connection with the produce of the cocoanut 
palm. 
Excepting by some of the river valleys, and near the Transvaal 
border, the district of Lourengo Marques has a very poor forest 
cover. The British Government made a serious mistake in not 
acquiring this port when the Portuguese wished to part with it 
for £12,000, not long after the award of Marshal MacMahon, in 
1872. A fancy price would now be asked for it. Lourengo 
Marques is the best natural harbour in South Africa, and is fast 
becoming the most important port, being the proper outlet for 
the Transvaal. For lack of protection and conservation, there 
is little remarkable to relate regarding timber-trees and forest 
produce along this coast-line. Protection is only now coming 
into force. In the adjoining British colonies, afforestation is fast 
progressing, the Governments having come to understand that 
until there is forest cover to protect the crops and herds 
from pestilential winds, blights, and insect ravages, the bare 
mountain ranges and open plains are worthless for agricultural 
purposes. In this territory we have considerable forest cover, 
