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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



[Vol. 8, No. 3 



The plateau is seldom visited by Europeans, although the time is perhaps 

 not far distant when, with the development of incentive, its large area of vacant, 

 fertile-appearing lands, and undoubtedly healthy climate, will attract settlement 

 by white farmers. Successful experimental plantings of pyrethrum were made on 

 the plateau during the Second World War. Biological investigations appear to 

 have been concerned chiefly with birds, which were collected as early as 1896 by 

 Alexander Whyte, who also collected plants. The flora is little known. 



My approach to Nyika was from Nchena-chena Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 at about 4,200 feet on the southeastern uplift to the plateau. The station was 

 beautifully situated with a view over orderly, irrigated plantings and across the 

 trough-like South Rukuru Valley (generally called Henga Valley) to the north end 

 of the 6,000-foot Vipya Plateau, about 10 miles away. Water for the plantings was 

 gravitated from one of the many perennial streams with source on the plateau. 

 Arabian coffee, tung of the montana species, and Garner wheat were being demon- 

 strated for native interest as commercial crops. Thriving native plantings of cof- 

 fee were already established somewhat higher on the slopes. 



A steady climb, by a well-worn path leading up Nchena-chena spur ridge, 

 was steepest at the beginning and under the rim of the plateau. Brachystegia 

 woodlands reached up the slopes to about 5,300 feet. Above this was a tract 

 evidently denuded of woodland for former native cultivation, in which on the 

 open spur crest scattered small Protect and Philippia trees grew in grass four to 

 six feet high, while the slopes below were covered with bracken. Flowering in the 

 grass was blue Delphinium dasycaulon Fresen. , yellow Helicbrysum kirkii Oliv. 

 & Hiern, and tall Polygala gomesiana Welw. Plentiful as shrubs were Eriosema 

 ellipticum Welw. ex Bak., E. montanum Bak. f. and Tephrosia aequilata Bak. 

 At about 6,500 feet the small trees practically disappeared, the grass was now 

 only a foot high, and a different set of smaller showy herbs, among them white 

 Geranium vagans Bak. and orange-red Aloe 17147, were in flower. The path 

 passed through a belt of montane forest covering the crest of the spur at 6,900 

 feet. Dark forest, tailing off in narrow strips far down the streams, filled the 

 upper ends of the ravines and ended abruptly at, or a little below, the edge of the 

 plateau. 



The top of the escarpment was reached at about 7,600 feet, in 2% hours at 

 carrier pace from Nchena-chena. After another half hour of travel over rolling, 

 quite treeless grasslands of the plateau, camp was established at a couple of 

 rather dilapidated and damp grass-thatched huts built by the pyrethrum growers. 

 This was at an altitude of about 7,700 feet, beside some relic scraps of forest on 

 the edge of a boggy bottom, and about half a mile from the forests under the 

 edge of the escarpment. My only extensive views of the plateau were had on 

 this day and the day following (August 11). From then until my return to Nchena- 

 chena on August 20, field work was carried out in almost continuous mist and cold 

 drizzle which limited visibility to a few yards. Casual thermometer readings out- 

 side my tent at night gave lows of 36° and 37° F. Daytime highs ranged from 50° 

 to 54° F., with one reading of 62 degrees during a brief burst of afternoon sun- 

 shine. According to local information, a fortnight of bad weather can be expected 

 on Nyika in each of the months June, July and August. 



The appearance of the Nyika grasslands, and the presence of numbers of 

 small relic patches of forest, strongly suggest that with the exception of wet or 

 boggy hollows and streamways, and perhaps some rocky hills, the parts of 

 the plateau that I saw were at one time covered with montane forest. Probably 

 the process of deforestation was much the same as on Mlanje, with in this case 

 the Apoka playing a part by clearing land for cultivation and enlarging by dry 



