502 Hope. — The ‘ S add' of the Upper Nile. 
very interesting book of travel, ‘The Heart of Africa/ a trans- 
lation of which into English was published in 1873, we find 
full information about ‘Ambatch/ which will now be quoted 
or abridged : — 
‘ What, however, most interested me was the unlimited 
variety in the kinds of water plants which abounded in the 
floods, the sport of the winds and waves. Among them 
the Herminiera , known under the native name ambatch, has 
already been the subject of general remark ; it plays so 
prominent a part in the waters of the Upper Nile that it 
might fairly be designated the most remarkable of the aquatic 
plants. 
e My predecessor, Kotschy, who did not know that it had 
already been observed by Adanson in Senegambia, named it 
Aedemone mirabilis , which was corrupted into the still more 
wonderful name of Anemone mirabilis , and so appeared in 
many books which treated of Africa. The ambatch is distin- 
guished by the almost unexampled lightness of its wood, if 
the fungus-like substance of the stem deserves such a name at 
all. It shoots up to fifteen or twenty feet in height, and at its 
base generally attains a thickness of about six inches. The 
weight of this fungus-wood is so insignificant that it really 
suggests comparison to a feather. Only by taking it into his 
hands could any one believe that it were possible for one man 
to lift on his shoulders a raft made large enough to carry 
eight people on the water. The plant shoots up with great 
rapidity by the quiet places of the shore, and since it roots 
merely in the water whole bushes are easily broken off by the 
force of the wind or stream, and settle themselves in other 
places. . . . This is the true origin of the grass-barriers so 
frequently mentioned as blocking up the waters of the Upper 
Nile, and in many places making navigation utterly im- 
practicable. Other plants have a share in the formation 
of these floating islands which daily emerge like the Delos of 
tradition ; among them in particular the Vossia grass, and 
the famous papyrus of antiquity, which is at present nowhere 
to be found either in Nubia or in Egypt. 5 
