AX ABUNDANT FLORA. 2-'7 



The Cltrullus vulgans and C. amarus are found in enormous quanti- 

 ties. Dr. Livingstone speaks of another individual of the gourd 

 tribe, probably a kind of Cucumis, whose fruits colour red when 

 ripe, and which has sometimes a sweet and sometimes a bitter 

 flavour. In these vast regions, where a desolating aridity prevails, 

 the rivers and streams dry up for a great portion of the year, and 

 the soil of their bed, generally black and loamy, is rapidly covered 

 with a profuse vegetation, composed in great part of grasses and 

 rush-plants. 



The bffnks of the rivers Mokolo and Zouga, and the shores of 

 Lake Ngami, are covered with herbs and small thorny stunted 

 bushes, including the Acacia detinens. In the south of Africa the 

 soil is so dry that only plants of a fleshy consistency can endure the 

 heat ; elsewhere, in more temperate climes, these latter plants are 

 also very abundant, but the surrounding herbage destroys them. 

 Among those which grow there in great numbers I may name the 

 Ficoidese, and particularly the Mesembryanihemiim inflexum, which 

 is very widely spread, and whose stems and leaves are eaten by 

 herbivorous animals. This plant, says Dr. Livingstone, is so useful 

 that it is cultivated by the Dutch Boers on an extensive scale. On 

 his northward route towards Linianty, this illustrious traveller fell in 

 with meadows of such rank fertility that its herbage frequently rose 

 above his vehicles. The natives, designated Makalatos, show some 

 agricultural taste and skill, and cultivate durra, maize, two kinds of 

 beans, arachides, pumpkins, and the like. Everywhere, along the 

 banks of the Gambye and the Liba, he met with exceptionally 

 fertile land, where the grasses attained an unusual development. 

 On the Liba bloomed wide verdurous plains, consisting of plants with 

 dazzling corollas and graminese of tall stature. Owing to the burning 

 heats which blight these districts, herbaceous plants are developed 

 with extraordinary rapidity. 



In the rainy season the Liba meadows are covered, like our own, 

 with an immense variety of mushrooms, some nutritious, others 

 poisonous. The former are much relished by the natives. One of 



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