72 In the Heart of Africa 



which recalls the colonnades of a beech forest or of a forest dome. 

 To a certain extent this wood is impervious to the sun's rays. The 

 whole space from the ground to the tops of the trees is filled with 

 an overwhelming mass of green ; no wood is to be seen, but only 

 soft, luxuriant foliage and soft, herbaceous stems. There are few 

 shrubs in the true sense in the brushwood in which the younger 

 branches have lignified ; on the contrary, a profusion of per- 

 manent growths which only lignify in their main stems may be 

 mentioned, among which beautiful labiatiflorous specimens such 

 as Pycnostachys are prominent. Lovely species of Vernonia with 

 purple and heliotrope blossoms, reminding one of the Eupatormm 

 cannabinwn, large yellow Senecio and luxuriantly blooming 

 acanthaceae (Mimulopsis) are often found interlaced with other 

 growths, helping with their soft, sappy leaves to swell the general 

 vvealth of foliage. The most beautiful of the twining plants was 

 probably the reversed leaf growth. Begonia Meyeri Johannis, 

 named in honour of Hans Meyer, which with its shining, fleshy 

 leaves and gorgeous yellow-white blooms is an ornament to the 

 underwood. The most conspicuous, however, is an amaranth 

 ifyathula spec. ?), which unfortunately I never saw in bloom ; it 

 forms great thickets and bowers, climbs high without being 

 exactly a liana, and hangs down again in dense, broad clusters 

 or festoons, making the undergrowth perfectly impenetrable. 



" Wherever this tall brushwood leaves a little space, however, 

 the ground is covered with ferns, blossoms, smaller amaranths, 

 and graceful blooming Coleus and Plectranthus species. 



" Incomparably rich and luxuriant as this forest is, it would yet 

 have something oppressive about it in its exuberance if it covered 

 all the hills and valleys. The chief charm of the Rugege land- 

 scape consists rather in its variations of wood and glade, its 

 grassy slopes which clothe the lower valley, its dells and dales, 

 and the well-watered fens and meadows which lie alongside the 

 brooks and streams. The vales and meadows as Kandt saw them 

 must have an indescribable charm: when thousands of stemmed 

 lobelias spring up from the grass — like gigantic candles, and the 

 green valley is buried for miles under the heads of millions of 



