174 ZAMBEZIAN FLORA 



graceful growth, which occurs in dense clumps or 

 thickets, some of considerable extent and with canes 

 of great thickness, is found all over the Zambezi 

 country, and there are few more desirable halting- 

 places than the shimmering, fairy-like bamboo glade, 

 with the bright sunshine playing on the long, lancet- 

 shaped, silvery leaves, and dappling the moss-grown 

 carpet beneath with luminous spots of light. Here 

 is another intensely useful plant, and even the 

 leaves possess astonishing virtues when prescribed 

 for an out-of-condition horse, which they fatten 

 more quickly than anything else that has come to 

 my knowledge. Indigo bushes are also occasionally 

 seen, but are not so common as in the Mozambique 

 district, where they are very numerous, and often 

 rise to a height of four or five feet. Livingstone 

 speaks of having met with it on Lake Nyasa, and 

 our dear old clerical historian, Fr. Joao dos Santos, 

 writing in the sixteenth century, says at that time 

 the indigo was utilised by the Arabs then settled 

 in East Africa, who extracted the colouring prin- 

 ciple by methods not unlike those still employed, 

 and dyed the textiles of Miluane, so called because 

 they were worn by the people who hved in a country 

 through which a river of that name passed. 



Among the Liliacae, the most singular family is 

 perhaps that of the fibre-producing Sansevierias. 

 This odd-looking growth sticks boldly out of the 

 soil like some dark green rod which has been 

 thrust into it. It is quite startling in its down- 

 rightness. It seems to say, " Here I am ; there 

 is no nonsense or ornamentation about me, and 

 I require nothing whatever, thank you." The 



