142 
Forest Flora of Portuguese East Africa. 
Bark from a stem having branches is not used as a hole is left in the cloth where each branch was, and on purpose to avoid this difficulty the M’Chopes natives have 
learned and practice the method of coppicing these Mpaam trees and thereby producing a few vigorous, clean, unbranched stems from one old root. 
In the case of the Brachystegia which is very abundant in M’Chopes and used for other but not for this purpose there, but which is the principal cloth-tree north of 
the Zambesi the process « very similar, except that when the beating is finished the material still retains a firmness and rigidity which is not comfortable, and to get that removed 
the women have to chew the whole piece, bit by bit, until it is soft and pliable. 6 ° 
Without the chewing, and without being opened at one side, the same bark is used as the principal sacking material in Zambesia, the tree in this case having to be cut 
ovm, and the bark cut to lengths and beaten upon ns own stem until it is clean and loose and slips off entire, requiring only each end to be tied with a shred of the same 
material to have the bag complete Many hundred such bags of earth-nuts were seen passing to the coast, each bag containing a man's load, viz., 60 or 7 o lbs They were a"o 
seen m use for holdmg mcahc-meal, cassiva-flour, beans, Kafir corn, salt and the various other commodities in use in the district. 
„ Th ? SeSaCllS m ' C " 0 T" n ‘ he S ° Uthern diStriCtS ’ ' V ' ,ere lhe " sual method of slorin S such Products was in drums, still made of the same Brachystegia bark but 
of this „r k i: zsa z “ or pinned im ° form ^ Th - d ™™' * •»**»■. &c ., m a d e 
without cg: q ^’ B ' spicacf0rmis ai>peared 10 bc ,he s P ecies P' ese "‘. but in Zambesia the several species of Brachystegia were used in the same way, apparently 
bundle ThelLT Mo" 18 U$ed “ fibreS ^ C ° f rd , age Were ‘' lijUndant eVerywhere ’ and it appeared to be a matter of no difficulty anywhere for a native to find fibre to tie no a 
init a, kt r ptovince - « ^ plants w h ?ch 
any commercial fibre is obtainable in quantity enough in the S sLte to 3an, ex, 'm ™ " 0l ap P ear » rae ho "'-er that 
and arc obtainable in sufficient quantity for these, but beyond Braclnstegia there is no hr' 1 ^ * °T ! r Brachys ! egia ' 1 he fibres ^ Ulte su,t the local purposes, 
MVhopesis abundant in a semi-naturaLd conditio, is’, ^ J JET ^ ‘ 
yard or nto^ghT^ b T ^ ^ 1 & Sl “ kii 1 °" ly ~ » Ovation ; it has terete , eaves a 
Hyphaene and Borassus, while useful in their own way are expensive as the collection of ouite P ™ pa f l, ° n appeared t0 be slow - rhe fibres from the leaves of palms, such as 
the stems or leaf-bases, as happens with Raphia elsewhere. ’ * q y ng eaves involves ver y scatter ed work, and no useful fibre is obtainable from 
favourable growing season, dry harvesting sLsonXd^ offivaesid" 1 ^ TiT W?™*’ !” ? far . aS cultivated cotlon is concerned; with suitable soil, 
regular transport. Its cultivation is however a matter for large holders nthcr than fo H ' & lmmUmty from insect P ests and the introduction of more cheap and 
slant attention, and unless under European supervision I do not look for native enhu ^ ^ ’’ * r f r ° P J hlcl ? eas,ly goes wrong and which rec l uires very dose and con- 
rather than otherwise, since it provides a perpetual home for all the jests tl I culture proving successful. Meantime what little there is of native cotton culture is harmful 
doubted if any while cotton with long staple is actually indigenous ' VV’lnt r Luan^n^T pr ° d “ CCS no revenue - Wlld cotton is seldom abundant and it may be 
in so far as is at present known. * R hat “ USUally taken for Wlld cotton 15 a Convolvulaceous creeper, Ipomaea albivenia, worthless as cotton, 
increased °i 8 ^ **“ “ — » ‘»e north and could without difficulty be 
condition, The Sisal itself is no, indigenous and hardly natur ltd , h, rl mg * l>reSent retUm Whi ' e the n ’° re P e ™ a nent is growing into fruiting 
with a view to lire exportation of its fibre. d * h ’ bul ls one of the comi "g agricultural plants of the Province, and is even now being planted largely 
vj u iu j| LJ X no, 
no, OcC. 
dneed by ,r,« r exp ; rt i ,a , s r ken place - A smau amoum ° f copai is exp - ted - "' hat «* - p- 
unlcss its exudation can bc assisted by wounds or otherwise The various Comm’iohoi® J m 1 rachybblum or some Acacla ' but ‘he quantity available is exceedingly small 
be augmented artificially, and so also with Eriodendron, Lrbax S« IZaoffia n0t “ ^ qUaWityi “ is possibb however that the flow of this could 
