354 THROUGH ANGOLA 



dimensions in the central plateau, where it is the 

 favourite shady tree found near the villages, and 

 is used by the natives to make palisades for pro- 

 tecting their habitations and crops. In the in- 

 terior of Benguella, as in the north and south 

 of Angola, are numerous tree creepers ; among 

 them are the rubber vines (Landolphias), with mag- 

 nolia-like leaves and jasmine-like flowers. In the 

 forests of more luxuriant growth the tree-creepers 

 sometimes form a regular roof garden of colour, 

 by flowering on the summits of the forest trees ; 

 but some of the creepers are very disagreeable 

 neighbours. There is one, Mucuna pruriens, with 

 maroon-coloured flowers, and pods covered with 

 fine hairs, which cause a most horrible itching if 

 they get on to the hands or body. 



In the swamps and near marshy rivers there 

 grow Herminiera Elaphroxylon (Bimba) and vast 

 quantities of the Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), which 

 served the Egpytians and other ancient people for 

 paper, and now serves the Angolan native for 

 making his mats or loangoas. 



MOSSAMEDES DISTRICT. The coastal zone of 

 this province, from Cape Martha to the Cunene 

 River, forms a gradually widening stretch of desert 

 land and subterranean rivers which extends for a 

 varying distance between the seashore and the 

 rampart of the Chellas and the high plateau. 



Growing in the desert country to the south of 

 Mossamedes is the sometimes century-old Wel- 

 witschia mirabilis, with a trunk only a few inches 

 long, ending in a brown flat top nearly 2 feet in 

 diameter, divided into two lobes, from each of 



