Chap. XXXIV. RICH VEGETATION. 
453 
on purpose, — round spacious huts with unusually high 
clay walls ; these are called " debbiru" by the Fiilbe 
of A'damawa, from the Hausa word " debbi." Even 
for the cattle there was here a stable, but more airy, 
consisting only of a thatched roof supported by thick 
poles, and enclosed with a fence of thorny bushes. 
The vegetation in the place was very rich, and an 
experienced botanist might have found many new 
species of plants, while to me the most remarkable cir- 
cumstance was the quantity of Palma Christi scattered 
about the place, a single specimen of the gonda-tree, 
and the first specimen of a remarkable plant which I 
had not observed before on my travels, — a smooth 
soft stem about ten inches thick at the bottom, and 
shooting up to a height of about twenty-five feet, but 
drawn downwards and inclined by the weight and 
size of its leaves, which measured six feet in length 
and about twenty inches in breadth. The Hausa 
people gave it the name " alleluba," a name generally 
given to quite a different tree which I have men- 
tioned in speaking of Kano. The plant bears some re- 
semblance to the Musa, or banana ; fruits or flowers 
it had none at present. 
I had been roving about for some time when the 
sherif, whom I mentioned above, came to pay me a 
visit, when I learned that he had come to this place 
by way of Waday and Log6n, and that he had been 
staying here already twenty days, being engaged in 
building a warm bath for the mallem, as he had also 
done for the sultan of Waday. 
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