60 
FLORA OF MIXEEXGA. 
The flora was new and interesting; but we were 
amazed at not seeing better crops, as grasses with 
pendent panicles grew luxuriantly ten feet high. The 
surface-soil, however, was very light — merely the wash- 
ings of the hill-sides brought down in a stream of red 
clay grit. In this tract of country we came upon 
groups of palms, not met with since we left the coast : 
they were converted into many uses — fences, thatching, 
firewood, and uprights for building, &c. Toddy also 
was occasionally extracted. The fruit hung down in 
rich, large, tempting clusters, at the mercy of any 
hungry traveller. We observed several of these palms, 
with their leaf-stalks still remaining on the tree, to 
be the support and life of a species of ficus, growing 
like a parasite, luxuriantly healthy, its roots not near 
the ground, but forming a complete network round 
the stem of the palm. Tamarind -trees, so umbrageous 
and beautiful in outline, were numerous. There was 
also the rumex, from ten to twelve feet high ; and the 
tree, a ficus, whose bark affords the Waganda their 
clothing, was here seen for the first time. The bark is 
taken off in stripes, according to the size they can get 
it, then damped and beaten by heavy wooden hammers 
till pliant, and afterwards sewn into a sheet the colour 
of chamois-leather, but much thicker ; the outer bark 
is thrown away. Near the villages a few scrubby 
bushes of cotton were grown upon mounds made by 
white ants. Looms of the rudest construction con- 
verted the produce of these into a hard, very stout, 
heavy cloth, about four or five feet in size, with one- 
fourth of it a black border, and worn by women only. 
Sessamum grew in ridges with the sorghum; its oil, 
and that extracted from the ground-nut, being used 
