1953] 



VEGETATION OF NYAS ALAND 



179 



springy to walk on, and, where deeply deposited, often cut by narrow erosion 

 gutters, hidden by the grass, which may go down four or five feet to the under- 

 lying rock. Outliers of the community are met with on the lowest parts of the 

 uplands, in rocky situations on the Loudetia grasslands, on the banks of streams, 

 and in boggy bottoms. Clumped sedges such as Costularia natalensis C. B. 

 Clarke and Coleochloa oliveri (Boeck.) Gilly tend to replace the grasses on shal- 

 low stony soil. Coleochloa ? virgata K. Schum. sometimes forms extraordin- 

 ary tussocks, several feet high, with fibrous peaty base shaped into vase-like 

 forms. These grasslands carry a number of shrubs including Lopholaena whyteana 

 (Britt.) Phill. & C. A. Sm., Helichrysum densiflorum Oliv., Selago thomsoni 

 Rolfe, Hebenstretia dentata L., and the small heaths Blaeria kiwuensis Engl, and 

 Erica milanjiana Bolus. The community occupied more varied terrain than any 

 other high grassland we saw in Nyasaland and was by far the richest in herbs. 

 To mention only a few, Xyris species grew in bogs; utricularias on seepage slopes, 

 Knowltonia transvaalensis Szyszyl. under bracken and flowering after fire; Gera- 

 nium I ati stipulation Hochst., Micromeria biflora (Buch.-Ham.) Bth., and a new 

 Stachys (16792) in shelter of rocks. Most conspicuous on open ground were the 

 helichrysums mentioned for the Loudetia grasslands, also H. kirkii Oliv. & Hiern 

 and H. odoratissimum (L.) Less. Of so-called "bulbous" species, dormant plants 

 were found, but only a Kniphofia and a Dierama in flower. Ground orchids were 

 said to be a striking feature of the grasslands later in the year. 



As in all habitat groups on Mlanje, more species df xeric rock-inhabiting 

 plants were seen than could be collected in identifiable condition. Very abundant 

 locally and of small-tree stature were Aloe 16525 and Vellozia splendens Rendle, 

 the latter not flowering. Antbospermum wbyteanum Britt. was a common shrub; 

 Crassula globularioides Britt., Helichrysum sordidum S. Moore, and Strep tocarpus 

 hirtinervis C. B. CI., common herbs; Plectranthus sanguineus Britt. and S. crassus 

 N. p. Br., succulent sub-shrubs. Most attractive of all the rock plants was shrubby 

 Helichrysum wbyteanum Britt., with beautiful silvery-white flowerheads delicately 

 flushed with pink. 



Nchisi and vicinity. The government bungalow in which we had our head- 

 quarters at Nchisi stood at an altitude of about 4,600 feet on the edge of the 

 western escarpment of the Rift, and on the lower southeastern slopes of Nchisi 

 Mountain. Below it, ridgy slopes dropped rather steeply to the plains of Lake 

 Nyasa, 3,000 feet below. Twenty miles away, straight into the sunrise, was the 

 lake, a great body of water with mountains in Portuguese territory showing dimly 

 on its far side, and high Mbenge Island lying off its western shore. Nchisi Mountain 

 rose directly from the edge of the Rift as a steep narrow ridge, and its summit, 

 about a mile from camp, had an altitude of about 5,400 feet. 



Lying partly behind the mountain and extending southward along the edge of 

 the Rift at elevations of 4,500 to 5,000 feet, were the Chintembwe-Mweru plateau 

 highlands, densely populated by people of the Chewa tribe. In its nearer parts this 

 was a fertile country of rolling bald hills of deep reddish soils derived from 

 graphitic schists, evidently deforested, and carrying patches of dark green ap- 

 parently secondary closed forest which, according to Willan (1940, p. 53) is a 

 deciduous type comprised of Albizzia maranguensis or a mixture of this tree and 

 Cordia abyssinica. A numerous native population also inhabited parts of the 

 slopes of the escarpment down to an elevation of about 3,000 feet below Nchisi 

 Mountain. It seemed probable that much of the land occupied and cultivated by 

 these people formerly carried a dry deciduous forest or dense woodland shown on 

 Willan's vegetation map as Pterocarpus-Bauhinia Foothills Forest. Jungly second 

 growths of tall grass and small trees covered lands not actually under cultivation 



