896 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



six feet long when full grown, one corresponding to each lobe : these are 

 quite flat, linear, very leathery, and split to the base into innumerable thongs 

 that lie curling upon the face of the soil. Its discoverer describes these same 

 two leaves as being present from the earliest condition of the plant, and 

 assures me that they are in fact developed from the two cotyledons of the 

 seed, and are persistent, being replaced by no others. 



" From the circumference of the tabular mass above, but close to the in- 

 sertion of the leaves, spring stout dichotomously-branched cymes, nearly a 

 foot high, bearing small, erect scarlet cones, which eventually become oblong, 

 and attain the size of those of the common spruce-fir. The scales of the cones 

 are very closely imbricated, and contain, when young and still very small, 

 solitary flowers, which in some cones are hermaphrodite (structurally but not 

 functionally), in others female. The hermaphrodite flower consists of a peri- 

 anth of four pieces, six monadelphous stamens, with globose three-locular 

 anthers, surrounding a central ovule, the integument of which is produced 

 into a styliform sigmoid tube, terminated by a discoid apex. The female 

 flower consists of a solitary erect ovule, contained in a compressed utricular 

 perianth. The mature cone is tetragonous, and contains a broadly- winged 

 fruit in each scale." 



The climate of Angola is not so hot as might be expected from its lati- 

 tude. The thermometer in the hot season is seldom more than 80° to 86° 

 Fahrenheit in the shade during the day; 90° and over is not often attained. 

 In the cool season the usual temperature is 70° to 75° Fahrenheit, and at 

 night as low as 60° to 65°. The sea-breeze, which sets in about nine or ten 

 o'clock in the morning, and lasts till sunset or an hour later, cools the burn- 

 ing rays of the sun ; and the nights are always cool. In the interior, away 

 from the sea-breeze, the temperature is higher. Rain only falls in the hot 

 season, or from the end of October to the beginning or end of May, when 

 violent storms with but little wind deluge the country. During the cool 

 season the sun is often not visible for days together, a thick uniform white 

 sky preventing its position being seen at any time of the day. A thick white 

 mist covers the ground at night, and in the morning valleys and low places are 

 completely enshrouded in it. As the wind and sun dissipate these rolling 

 vapouis, very beautiful effects are seen, particularly among the valleys and 

 mountains in the interior. 



The remedies of the natives for disease in Angola are numerous. In 

 fever and ague their treatment often consists in lying quiet until nature works 

 her own cure ; but they sometimes use a strong infusion of the leaves of an 

 excessively bitter plant, which they call Malulo. Another method of curing 

 fever is to squat over an earthen pot, in which the plants Herva Santa Maria 

 and Sangue-sangue have been boiled. The patient is well covered over, and 

 the aromatic vapour-bath soon produces copious perspiration, and often a 



