CH. Ill 



LOCALITY 43 



1 the others, viz. Ruwenzori and Mount Kenia, 1 the 

 I former in Uganda and the latter in British East 

 Africa. 



Of Ruwenzori only the eastern slopes have been 

 explored, and the following transitions were noted : 



Up to 6000 ft. (ab. 1800 metres) the forest flora does 

 not materially differ from that of the lower lands, i.e. 

 on the slopes are savannah and savannah -forest with 

 the red -flowered Evythrina tomentosa and Cordia 

 abyssinica and, in moister places, bananas, while, in the 

 valleys, trees are more abundant and larger, with a 

 Pseuclocedrela and a Symphonia as the most char- 

 acteristic of them. From 6000 to 9000 ft. (1800 to 

 2700 metres) the forest gradually shades off from the 

 tropical to the temperate in character. In the lower 

 part of this transition zone Tree-Lobelias (L. Giberroa) 

 first appear, as also Hill-Bamboos (Arundinaria) and 

 one kind of Tree-heath (Philippic/, Stuhlmanii). This 

 is also the habitat of the Tree-fern (Cyathea). The 

 middle portion is characterised by a short, thick-set tree 

 of the natural order of the Proteaceae (Faurea saligna) ; 

 while in the upper portion there is a dense belt of Hill- 

 Bamboo, together with the first appearance of a Conifer 

 (Podocarpus milanjianus), which is found in greatest 

 abundance at between 8500 to 9000 ft., but reaches up 

 to 11,000 ft. (3350 metres). Above 9000 ft. the char- 

 acter of the tree flora is temperate ; the trees are clad 

 with dense layers of moss and filmy ferns and festoons 

 of the Usnea lichen hang from twigs and leaves. The 

 characteristic tree of this zone, up to 12,000 ft. (3660 

 metres), is the true Tree-heath represented by two species 

 (Erica arbor ea and E. Mannii), while the Podocarpus, 

 as stated above, does not reach quite so high. In this 

 zone three different kinds of Tree-Lobelias succeed each 

 other and range up to the foot of the glaciers, while 

 Tree-Senecios, the "giant groundsel" of Johnston, 2 



1 B,eport on a Botanical Mission through the Forests of Buddu, etc. , by M. T. 

 Dawe, 1906, and Report on the Forests of Kenia, by D. E. Hutchins, 1907. 



2 Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate, 1902. 



