r,e6 ZONES AND REGIONS [Pt. Ill, Sect. I 



3 



The African savannah possesses not only dwarf trees, but also large, even 

 o-igantic ones. The most renowned of these giants of the savannah is the 

 monkey-bread tree, or baobab, Adansonia digitata, 'a tree that is variously 

 developed, but as a rule well grown and of gigantic proportions ; the trunk 

 and crowm appear to be of excessive, one might say, of uncouth thickness '.' 

 The baobab is confined to open country, in particular to savannah, and 

 absolutely reigns over wide tracts of it (Fig. 197) : 



' 111 general, the form of the monkey-bread tree resembles that of our huge oaks 

 growing on pasture lands. Like these, it exhibits many individual peculiarities, 

 but as a rule it has its limbs less gnarled and not given to such sharp bends. For 

 the sake of sharply marking off the different kinds of individuals of Adansonia, 

 these may be ranged under three heads according to their habit of growth. The 

 massive unbranched bole is either cylindrical, almost uniformly thick throughout, 

 and like a column bears its crown at a great height ; or it is short, remarkably thick- 

 set and swollen, and subdivided not far from the ground into a number of equal- 

 sized boughs ; or low down it sends out a huge mass of boughs, but up to at least 

 about two-thirds of its height above the ground it remains distinctly recognizable 

 as the main trunk -.' 



According to Pechuel-Losche, an Adansonia of the first form, standing at Landana, 

 measured 17 meters up to the first bough, with a girth of S meters. The girth of 

 the trunk of a tree of the second form, standing at Ambrizette, was 27 meters. 



' The Adansonia is specially important as a true sign of the open country. It 

 demands space, air, and light ; if these conditions of its welfare are not fulfilled, 

 it languishes and dies. The open grassland is its home; I have never found it in 

 high-forest. In other respects, however, it is indiflerent whether it grows close to 

 water or on dry hill-tops ; I have even found some on quite swampy ground. As 

 soon, however, as bushes settle round it and trees begin to encircle it, it shows 

 threatening signs of ruin : it gets crowded out, loses its branches, and finally 

 utterly collapses 3.' 



The wood of the baobab is spongy, soft, juicy, and forms a vast water-reservoir, 

 to which the tree owes its existence and vigorous development in the savannah. 

 It is however leafless during the dry season. 



More concisely, but likewise very vividly, has the eastern tropical African 

 savannah (Fig. 198) been described by Hans Meyer. It consists chiefly of 

 grass and small perennials with but few thorn}' shrubs ; every 100-200 paces 

 rises a tree or bush of the mimosa-form, that is to say with bipinnate le.ives. 

 The grass does not form a close sward, but grows in isolated tufts, the 

 intervals between which arc occupied by bare, red, laterite soil. The trees 

 are usually so far apart, that one can look between them for miles in all 

 directions ; less frequently they close in and give the landscape a park-like 

 appearance. 



As an example of the systematic composition of the Central East African 



grassland, some of Engler's statements are appended, regarding the forma- 



' Pechuel-Losche, op. cit., p. 17S. ^ Id., p. 177. 



" Id., p. 181. 



