Notes and Extracts 



357 



The Okafti. — Some interesting notes on the habits of this rare 

 mammal were recently contributed to the Times by Mr. P. H. G. 

 Powell-Cotton, who has spent ten months in the Ituri Forest in search 

 of it. His quest was a fruitless one, and the information given was 

 supplied to him by the Mambutti (pygmies) hunters. 



The Okapi, in native language " Kangi," is usually solitary ; even 

 the male and female feed apart, though with their family of one fre- 

 quenting the same part of the forest. 



It is very timid and restless, never remaining long at rest in one 

 place. In wet weather it sometimes seeks shelter in an abandoned 

 native hut, and there licks the mud and rain from its glossy coaL 

 It is chiefly on these occasions that the natives are able to shoot 

 or spear it. 



Vitality of Seeds. — Writing under the initials " H. B. P.," a corres- 

 pondent has recently contributed to Nature another remarkable 

 instance of suspended germination. 



He says that in February last he removed a wall (with foundation 

 stones) which formerly fenced an oak wood on a hill on a north 

 country farm. The wood was planted and fenced probably between 

 1600 and 1610, and felled forty years ago. In late spring the site 

 of the wall became carpeted with seedling foxgloves. There were 

 no foxglove plants within several hundred yards, and it was noted 

 that no foxgloves were produced upon disturbed turf outside the 

 site of the wall. " H. B-. P." is of strong opinion that the seeds " were 

 right underneath the foundation stones of the wall, and had lain there 

 ever since it was built.'' He adds that on the same farm he had 

 occasion to remove a quantity of top- spit from a field traditionally 

 called the "Barley-field," and place it on another part of the grass. 

 Afterwards corn weeds such as fumitory and sunspurge, previously 

 unknown in the pastures, came up in great abundance. 



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