178 ZAMBEZIAN FLORA 



river bank, on the outskirts of grass-patches, any- 

 where, in fact, where it sees any probabihty of 

 being able to fulfil its hideous destiny. This is 

 to drive people mad. About July the bean-pod, 

 covered with almost imperceptible, hair-like spines, 

 looks as though made of some inferior, rust- 

 coloured velvet, and is quite dry. When trodden 

 upon or disturbed, an impalpable cloud of these 

 tiny hairs rises into the air and settles upon 

 passers-by. For a few moments you feel nothing, 

 THEN, suddenly, you experience a burning, itching 

 irritation which yields to no sort of treatment I 

 have yet discovered. It is as though the whole of 

 the part affected had been deeply bitten by the 

 most venomous fleas in the entire Tring collection. 

 1 have seen natives tear off their clothing and 

 plunge madly into the river, regardless of the pre- 

 sence of numbers of crocodiles. Men marching in 

 single file display as much solicitude in warning 

 those who follow of the presence of the dreaded 

 Mucuna as they would of that of some poisonous 

 snake. 



In my descriptions of Zambezian flora, I have 

 hitherto said little of the many varieties of flowering 

 shrubs and climbers found in these districts, espe- 

 cially of those of the wide Leguminosse order known 

 to botany as Pseudarthria, with their wonderfully 

 luxuriant efflorescence of sweet-smelling flowers, 

 the tiny corolla pale salmon-pink, ovaries and calyx 

 dull reddish-crimson. The Abruses also abound, 

 both the A. precatorius and the A. pulchellus, 

 displaying through their half-opened seed vessels 

 pretty scarlet seeds, each marked with a single 



