158 In the Heart of Africa 



stein successively. Mildbraed reports the vegetation as stand- 

 ing out in harsh contrast with that of Ninagongo. 



"On Ninagongo," he writes, "everything was in the process 

 of formation. Nothing had matured. The flora of this moun- 

 tain offers no rich booty to the botanist, but yet it is imposing 

 by very reason of its monotony. The enormous base of the 

 volcano is covered with a pure bamboo vegetation up to a height 

 of some 3,000 metres, and this extends in broad bands as far as 

 the mixed bamboo forests of the Bugoie mountain land. From 

 a botanical point of view the bamboo forest is uncommonly 

 monotonous. Generally speaking nothing but scrubby under- 

 growth flourishes. The deep black vegetable soil is often 

 covered by a carpet of small selaginella. Small ferns grow in 

 it, different shrubs related to the stinging nettle (Fleurya, Piled), 

 and occasionally a pale pink balsam {Impatiens Eminii). Rarely, 

 but more often in such spots where the bamboo is in any way 

 impeded in its development, woody plants are to be found 

 sprinkled here and there. Amongst these the often-mentioned 

 Hypericum lanceolatum Lam., takes the first place. I measured 

 stems of two metres in circumference, on the whole, the sturdiest 

 that I had met with during the expedition. 



" Up beyond the bamboo on Karissimbi a vegetation exists 

 which, perhaps, has not its like on any other African moun- 

 tain. Even from the lava plains below one can see it gleaming 

 out from between the trees like luxuriant alpine meadows clad in 

 freshest green. Having passed the monotonous bamboo, one is 

 amazed at stepping into quite a strange open wood formed almost 

 entirely of extremely old hagenia stems. One measured 6.45 

 metres in circumference. They looked almost like huge blocks 

 of rock, divided at a short distance above the ground into 

 gigantic overhanging boughs covered with thick mossy cushions, 

 and unravelling in light branches bearing silver-grey, hairy 

 pinnae, slightly reminiscent of the well-known tanners' sumac 

 {Rhus typhind). The undergrowth is composed of the pretty 

 shrubs of Hypericum lanceolatum, a beautiful vernonia of tree- 

 like growth, and there is a fine sort of blackberry bramble which 



