I.:'0 



CHAPTER XXII. 



TROPICAL FLORA. 



Dillon I cannot expect for several days ; one of 

 my Zulus has cast the "bones " to learn what luck 

 he has had, and these say that he has already killed 

 tour big elephants, and that one of his followers has 

 met with an accident. We shall see what truth 

 there is in these prophecies ; I know many white 

 men who put absolute faith in them ; I, for one, do 

 not. 



A day or two after Selwin's interment I started 

 with Sunday for the uplands in search of buck. In 

 passing along the edge of the forest, my attention 

 was attracted by a detached yellow-wood tree of un- 

 usually large circumference and altitude. The 

 stem was thickly clothed with a parasitic plant, of 

 such healthy growth as to shut in and completely 

 envelop the trunk to a height of thirty or forty feet. 

 This creeper was densely covered with scarlet 

 blossoms, not unlike in shape large anemones, but 

 of a less evanescent construction. The perfume 

 this flower emitted was so powerful, that to remain 

 close and to leeward of it for even a few minutes pro- 

 duced headache. However, this did not prevent the 

 feathered beauties of the forest frequenting it, prin- 



