500 FRUIT ADAPTATION IN PLANTS. 



when it happens at the time of their blossoming. The 

 Batoka of my party declared that no one ever dies of 

 hunger here. We obtained baskets of maneko, a curious 

 fruit, with a horny rind, split into five pieces : these 

 sections, when chewed, are full of a fine glutinous matter, 

 and sweet like sugar. The seeds are covered with a yellow 

 silky down, and are not eaten ; the entire fruit is about 

 the size of a walnut. We got also abundance of the 

 motsouri and mamosho. We saw the Batoka eating the 

 beans called nju, which are contained in a large square 

 pod ; also the pulp between the seeds of nux vomica, 

 and the motsintsela. Other fruits become ripe at other 

 seasons, as the motsikiri, which yields an oil, and is a 

 magnificent tree, bearing masses of dark evergreen leaves ; 

 so that, from the general plenty, one can readily believe 

 the statement made by the Batoka. We here saw trees 

 allowed to stand in gardens, and some of the Batoka even 

 plant them — a practice seen nowhere else among natives. 

 A species of leucodendron abounds. When we meet with 

 it on a spot on which no rain has yet fallen, we see that 

 the young ones twist their leaves round during the heat 

 of the day, so that the edge only is exposed to the rays of 

 the sun ; they have then a half twist on the petiole. The 

 acacias in the same circumstances, and also the mopane 

 (Bauhinta), fold their leaves together, and, by presenting 

 the smallest possible surface to the sun, simulate the 

 eucalypti of Australia. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



November 27th. — Still at Marimba's. In the adjacent 

 country palms abound, but none of that species which 

 yields the oil ; indeed that is met with only near the 

 coast. There are r umbers of flowers and bulbs just 

 shooting up from the soil. The surface is rough and 

 broken mto gullies ; and though the country is parched, 

 it has not that appearance, so many trees having put forth 

 their fresh green leaves at the time the rains ought to have 

 come. Among the rest, stands the mola, with its dark 



