Ai'Bii. 1, 11)01.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



19 



-graceful egrets and herous^i autl other wadiug birds 

 may be distinguished. 



When once we got into the swing of things and began 

 to learn om* way through some of the mazes of the town, 

 preparations for our jom-uev up the White Nile did not 

 take long. Time being precious I determined to spend 

 as little, as possible in travelling, but to work 

 thoroughly a small tract of country from Omdurmau 

 south along the White Nile. With this in view we 

 decided to travel entirely by land, as being a more 

 thorough method of exploring the country, although 

 much slower and more fatiguing than travelling by 

 boat. Our task in Omdurman was to obtain permits 

 and servants, and animals to carry oiir baggage and our- 

 selves. At first we tried to buy camels, and several Ai'ab 

 sheikhs were induced to make a parade of their beasts 

 before us. Feeling sure, however, that such camels as 

 were shown us would become the prey of dogs and 

 vultures after a day's march, we waived their owners 

 politely away. At this deadlock I learnt most oppor- 

 tunely that His Excellency the Sirdar, Sir Reginald 

 Wingate, through the agency of Bimbashi F. G. Ncwall, 

 of the Intelligence Department at Omdurman, had most 

 kindly already hired baggage camels for mo from the 

 sheikh who contracts to supply the Government. This 

 difficulty being thus pleasantly overcome w-e turned our 

 attention to procuring our own mounts. Good horses 

 and saddles were diilicult to obtain, and to feed horses 

 in such a dry season would have been a difficult matter. 

 Kiding-camcls wei'e expensive, and a doubtful luxury. 

 We. therefore, fell back upon donkeys. But the donkey 

 of the Soudan is a miserable little beast compared to 

 that of Egyjjt, and although our animals, bought after 

 a wearisome amount of bargaining and trials, carried us 

 faii-ly successfully, we often wished for better mounts. 

 We made a great mistake in using the wide wooden 

 native saddles, which even with the aid of pads and a 

 sheepskin became exceedingly uncomfortable at the end 

 of a long day's march. Quite the mount for our journey 

 would have been a bicycle. The desert tracks, at all 

 events as far south as we travelled, are quite hard and 

 smooth enough to make bicycling possible and often 

 enjoyable. 



A permit to travel as far south as we cared to go on 

 the east. bank of the White Nile was granted us, but 

 we were prohibited on account of the unsettled state of 

 the country from journeying on the west bank at all. 

 This somewhat altered my plans as I had hoped to be 

 able to make several excursions into Kordofan from the 

 west bank. 



Licenses to can-y arms and to shoot weie also necessary. 

 By licensing each gun, rifle, or revolver, instead of the 

 user, the authorities make a distinct gain for the 

 Revenue. Some very fair game laws have also been 

 drawn up for the Soudan. No one is allowed to kill the 

 zebra or the ostrich. A special license authorises the 

 holder to kill a very limited number of adult male 

 buffalo, elephant, giraffe, hippopotamus, and rhino- 

 ceros, and for each animal killed, a special fee has to be 

 paid. A less expensive license allows one to kill antelope, 

 gazelle, and warthog. All other animals and birds may 

 be shot by the holder of an ordinary gun license. These 

 regulations might well be revised and made still more 

 useful, and no doubt Capt. Stanley S. Flower, who has 

 lately been appointed Director of the Soudan Wild 

 Animal Department, will see to it that better protection 

 is afforded to many scarce animals, such as giraffes and 

 some of th e rarer antelopes. 



Zl Eerodias ralloidef, Scop; 'fferoilian garzelfa, Linn.; Ardea 

 purpurea, Linn. 



FLOWERING PLANTS, 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM BRITISH WILD-FLOWERS. 



By 11. Lloyd Pkaegeh, b..v. 



II.— CONCERNING LEAVES. 



The stems of plants, as stated in my last article, arc 

 the framework on which the leaves and flowers ai'o 

 spread out to catch the light and air, and we find 

 definite relations existing between the form, position, 

 and strength of stems, and the shape, weight and func- 

 tion of the organs which the stems support. Tlio 

 branches of an Apple or Pear tree have to be sufficiently 

 strong not only to withstand the stress of winter gales, 

 and the burden of the wealth of blossom and foliage of 

 early summer, but also the weight of the abuiid.ant 

 fruit of autumn. It is interesting to note that among 

 our cultivated fruits, strength of stem has not kept pace 

 with the increase in weight of fruit due to artificial selec- 

 tion, so that in gardens our artificial fruits must needs, 

 ill a season of abundance, bo supported by artificial stems 

 — by props and crutches, lest, like the legs of the prize 

 turkey in the " Christmas Carol," the branches might 

 snap like sticks of .sealing-wax. In evergreen trees, the 

 weight of snow is a serious contingency that must not 

 be neglected. Nor must the chance of accident owing 

 to wandering animals be left out of account. The 

 young Ash saplings, a few feet in height, ai-e as pliable 

 as willow-wands, and spring back into their places as 

 we force our way through them ; but the knobly twigs 

 of an old Ash tree, which swing clear m the air high over- 

 head, are brittle, and snap across if we attempt to bend 

 them; the elasticity of the whole bough is sufficient to 

 bring them safely through the heaviest stoi-m. 



Between the form of a twig and that of the leaves 

 which it bears we can generally at once perceive a 

 relation. The little leaves of the Birch are borne on twigs 

 slender as a piece of twine. The Oak and Elm, with 

 larger leaves, require a stouter twig for their support. 

 The Svcamore and Ash have twigs which are stouter 

 still. The large leaves of the Horse Chestnut are boruo 

 on very thick twigs, in which the principle of the hollow 

 column is introduced. 



The arrangement of the leaves on the stem, or -phyllo- 

 taxis, is a question of the first importance. The leaves 

 must be so gi-ouped that all may receive as much light 

 as possible. So far as can be arranged, there should be 

 no overlapping, nor should any of the available space 

 be wasted. On the stem of the Ash, or Sycamore, or 

 Teazel, the large leaves arc arranged in alternate pairs, 

 the direction of the axis of each pair being at right 

 angles to that of the next. Thus two spaces or inier- 

 nodf.t separate any pair of leaves from the nearest pair 

 which, being placed in the same position, might over- 

 shadow it. This is a very simple case, which we shall 

 find to be the rule when we examine plants in which the 

 leaves are borne in opposite pairs. When loaves are 

 borne in whorls of three a similar rule will be found 

 to hold good. The position of the leaves of any whorl 

 is such that they are vertically below or above the -"ji'io-^ 

 between the leaves of the next whorl. It will be seen 

 at once that the amount of light received by each leaf 

 is materially increased by thris arrangement. If m a 

 theatre wo can look between the heads of two people 

 in the row immediately in front of us, the head of a 

 person in the next row beyond, even though directly 

 before us, does not much interfere with our view of the 

 stage. In most cases, however, the arrangement of the 

 leaves on the stem is much more complicated than 



