176 MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN [Vol. 8, No. 3 



other depot in Fort Lister Gap, by native porters. Paths on the mountain 

 connect the principal uplands of the eastern and western lobes. On Luchenya 

 (or Lichenya) Plateau, the largest western upland, there were several cottages, 

 built by Europeans for vacation use in the hot season, besides the forester's 

 cottage and ancillary buildings which we used while on the mountain. Our field 

 work was confined to this upland, a smaller western upland called Chambe 

 Plateau, and adjacent slopes including the main central ridge. We were unable 

 to visit the eastern lobe of the mountain, from which, as far as could be as- 

 certained, very few plants had been taken by earlier collectors. 



Dire predictions were made by old residents of the country as to the foul 

 weather we could expect on Mlanje in the winter months of June and July, and 

 after our experience on Zomba, we went prepared for the worst. Extra clothing 

 and blankets were bought for our natives, and peanut oil, tea, and sugar were 

 added to their regular rations of mealie meal, beans, and dried fish. But be- 

 tween early mornings and evenings usually misty, 11 of the 24 days we spent 

 on the mountain were clear and fine; eight were grey days made more or less 

 uncomfortable by mist and drizzle; and only five brought really bad chiperoni 

 weather with continuous mist and rain driven by a cold south to southeast wind. 

 Frosts whitened the ground on five clear mornings, when ice crystals on shady 

 wet ground remained unmelted until eight or nine o'clock. No snow was observed, 

 although occasional heavy falls have been reported to occur on the heights — 

 in 1913 and 1926, for example. Maximum shade temperature on our cottage veranda, 

 at about 6,100 feet, ranged from 50° to 56°, minimum from 37° to 45° F. Annual 

 rainfall on Luchenya Plateau is about 110 inches. 



On our route up the mountainside from Likubula base, Brachystegia-type 

 woodlands occupied the slopes up to 5,000 feet and scattered trees of the com- 

 munity persisted to 5,600 feet. Montane rain forest descended in gullies to 

 4,600 feet, in sparse brushy growths in which appeared the first small Wid- 

 dringtonia trees, ^ith increasing altitude, Widdringtonia became a prominent 

 overtopping tree in forests in the shelter of gullies and under bluffs. At about 

 5,800 feet a great change took place in the open vegetation of the slopes. The 

 tall, coarse grasses of the lower levels gave place to a denser growth of softer, 

 knee-high grasses at what appeared to be the lower edge of the zone of frequent 

 mists on that part of the mountain. Two small ericaceous trees, Agauria 

 salicifolia and Philippia benguelensis, characteristic of montane forest second 

 growths, suggested a fire-induced origin for this tree and grass community. 

 From ai>out this altitude upward, on the broad uplands and the slopes above them 

 to 6,500 feet and more, fires obviously had been at work. The mountain pre- 

 sented a patched pattern of dark closed forest, in a setting of uplands and slopes 

 predominantly grassy and treeless. Most of the surviving forest occurred in 

 ravines, hollows, and other situations sheltered from the full force of the south- 

 east wind of the dry season and thus in a measure protected from fire. What 

 little forest there was about 7,000 feet consisted of diminishing gully strips 

 which soon petered out altogether, or, where rugged rocky terrain afforded shelter, 

 persisted in elfin-wood form to slightly over 8,000 feet. A shrub form of the Wid- 

 dringtonia occurred on thes'e high rocky slopes. As seen through glasses, the 

 highest parts of the mountain consisted of masses of grey rock, smoothed by 

 erosion and patched with saxicolous lichens, or rough and fissured and support- 

 ing a meager scattering of shrubs and tufts of grass or Cyperaceae. 



Whyte in 1891 (as reported by Carruthers in 3ritten et al.) described Luchenya 

 Plateau much as we saw it 55 years later. Then, as in 1946, the largest body of for- 

 est survived in the damp gorge of the Luchenya River, which drains the plateau in a 



