THE HYDNORA AFRICANA 



123 



As we had now plenty of meat for the men, Count Teleki 

 decided to rest a day and enjoy some more hunting. After a 

 rainy night the morning broke clear and bright, and we started 

 off this time together in high spirits, but only to be disappointed, 

 for the morning slipped away without our having seen any big 

 game at all ; on the other hand, we had a very pleasant ramble 

 in beautiful scenery, the vegetation at its freshest and greenest, 

 the shrubs in flower, and even the baobabs, generally so bare 

 and grey, were now putting forth new shoots. The soft air 

 which swept across the steppe was laden with sweet scents, the 

 birds were chirping happily, and we 

 ourselves felt a kind of intoxication 

 in the midst of all the beauty sur- 

 rounding us. 



A baobab that has, if I may so 

 express it, died of old age presents a 

 very singular appearance. It splits 

 open, and the silver-grey bark, with 

 the brittle white inner wood, falls off 

 in strips, making a heap of wreckage 

 which, bleached by wind and sun, looks 

 from the distance so exactly like ruined 

 tents that we were quite deceived 

 till we examined one of them closely. 

 Of the flowering plants, a kind of hydnora africana, 

 root-parasite especially struck us, 



consisting of single red blossoms about a foot long, which, 

 with their stems, were almost hidden in the ground. We 

 found them along the banks of the Kikaso, but nowhere else. 

 Our Somal, who were familiar with them in their own land, 

 called them likke, and ate them raw. They have an acrid 

 watery taste, and, especially when decaying, emit a putrid 

 odour. They belong to the Cytinaceas genus, and are known 



