178 GRASSES 



summit we saw before us the vast green plain of Antsihanaka 

 stretching away to the northward, level as a lake, with long 

 lines of promontory jutting out into it from the north-west and 

 south-east, and a few low rounded hills rising out of it like 

 islands from a sea. In the far north-east the waters of the lake 

 Alaotra gleamed in the sunshine. To the south and east of the 

 plain we could see several large villages, but the chief town, 

 Ambatondrazaka, was hidden from view by an intervening line 

 of hill. We crossed ridge after ridge and valley after valley, 

 hoping each would prove the last. The path over one of these 

 valleys, a mile and a half wide, was especially difficult ; a 

 narrow winding track amongst swamp, prickly bamboo, 

 enormous papyrus and rushes, with here and there deep running 

 streams, whose only bridge was a slippery round pole partly 

 under water ; so that we afterwards spoke of it as " the great 

 dismal swamp ! " But we met with others equally bad, if not 

 worse, on our subsequent journeys round the plain, and the 

 passage seemed not nearly so formidable on our return. 



I was struck here, as well as in many other parts of the dis- 

 trict, by the remarkable and varied fragrance of the wild plants 

 growing among the grass. The scents appeared to me as 

 equally a convincing proof as the sights and sounds that one 

 was really in a tropical country. And here, as we have been 

 travelling for several days over country that is chiefly bare 

 moor (except the narrow belt of forest at the " Stone Gateway "), 

 I may appropriately say something about the grasses of Mada- 

 gascar, which must attract the attention of every observant 

 traveller. They are of great variety and beauty, and prominent 

 among them are different species of Vero. Of these the one 

 called simply Vero rises to a height of eight or ten feet, and has 

 a head of flowers somewhat like oats, but much longer. This 

 tall grass presents a varied appearance at different stages of its 

 growth. When in full flower, the heads contain a large number 

 of oat-like seeds with long awns, but later on the seeds fall off, 

 and at the head of each little branchlet there appears a minute 

 tuft of feathery plumes, like little stars, giving the grass quite 

 a different aspect from its first one. Another species, called 

 Verontsanjy, has a still more beautiful floral crown, and is as tall 

 as the first-named one, but not so common. These two grasses, 

 when seen in a mass, give a warm brown tint to the spots where 



