ye eo. ae Ss 
ane ets ae 
: an ‘eo ash OG te 
’ ON Oe Mn ate 
ake he ae oe 
1? A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
outer husk of the cocoa-nut in shape, remains on the tree 
simultaneously with the freshly opened flowers, and looks 
much like a large bat, folded in its wings and hanging to 
the branches. Thirsty with my noonday wandering under 
the sparse shade that the half-open leaves afforded, I 
jumped at a calabash, dragged it down and broke it open. 
Then I took out the pinky-white pith and chewed it, 
finding therein a most pleasant, thirst-quenching acid. 
The monkeys are very fond of this pith; so much so that 
the fruit of the baobab is sometimes called monkey bread. 
Adansonia digitata, the “ Imbundeiro” of the Portuguese, 
the tree generally known as “baobab” (through whence 
this name comes, I know not), ranges over all Africa 
between the Sahara and the Kalahari Desert, and an 
allied species is found in Australia. Roughly speaking, 
it is a huge mallow, and is rather a gigantic plant than 
a tree, for the interior of its great swollen trunk is all 
spongy pith and not firm wood. 
The candelabra euphorbias, so common on the Angola 
coast, still linger on about Ambriz, although they are 
handsomer and glossier in this more favoured region, and 
have lost that dingy colour and distorted form that 
characterise them farther south.* The aloes are all in 
blossom, and their tall, orange-red flower-spikes make a 
very pretty point amid the yellow orchids and the yellow- 
ereen grass. The river at Ambrizéte is picturesque, its 
mangrove woods are exceptionally fine, and as the ground 
rises to some height inland a fine view of the stream may 
be obtained as it meanders sluggishly through massive 
eroves. On the snags by the water-side many aquatic 
birds are perched, and up the steep river banks there is 
plenty of greenery amid which stand out, like hawthorn 
in May, the snowy sprays of jasmine flowers which fill the 
air with such a balmy perfume. In the shallow pools and 
marshes are ‘‘mud-fish.’t I notice them here for the 
first time so far south. 
* The candelabra euphorbia (Luphorbia candelabrum) is never 
found farther northward on the south-west coast, or anywhere on 
the Congo. T Anophthalinus. 
