96 
Rhodesia and the Victoria Falls. 
perhaps most interested in the Podostemacere found on the rocks 
or in the shallow water above the Falls. One of these was of small 
feathery growth, red in colour and resembling a seaweed, but 
absence of flower or fruit made it impossible of identification. 
The other, which grew in large tufts on the now exposed rocks, 
was dried by the sun and studded with fruits like the capsules of a 
moss. It looked very unlike a flowering plant. It seems to be a 
species of Dicraea. 
The so-called Rain Forest on the opposite side of the gorge into 
which the Zambesi precipitates its waters, is in marked contrast to 
the rest of the vegetation of the district. A dense screen of ever¬ 
green Eugenias breaks the force of the spray which dashes up 
against it, and behind this living screen we have a magnificent 
development of vegetation favoured by the abundant and almost 
permanent moisture supplied by the falling spray. Tall luxuriantly 
growing trees, mostly evergreen, covered with epiphytes and 
festooned with lianes, make it almost impossible to believe that one 
is really in a region with a pronounced dry season. 
Of the trees one of the tallest and most abundant was a 
Mimusops (Sapotacese), the olive-like fruits of which are edible, while 
the wood is of considerable value. Most interesting, too, was a 
large Ficus, which produced its numerous inflorescences close to 
the base of the stem, like the Indo-Malayan Ficus rhizocarpa. In 
the more open parts of the forest away from the Falls, where the 
atmosphere was drier, Phoenix reclinata became more abundant, 
though numerous young palms are found inside the forest. Here, 
however, the undergrowth is made up very largely of ferns, of which 
the silver fern Cheilanthes farinosa. was the most conspicuous. 
A Psilotum, too, was seen on a dead tree trunk, otherwise clothed 
with Mosses. Mosses, indeed, were numerically very abundant, but 
not very varied in kind. Facing the Falls and outside the Rain 
Forest the rocks were covered with a brownish gelatinous growth 
which seemed to consist largely of globular masses of Cyanophycese. 
The view from these slippery rocks of the long line of Falls, broken 
by little rocky islands, the ceaseless play of the falling waters 
accompanied by the resounding noise of the torrents dashing them¬ 
selves against the bottom of the gorge, four hundred feet below, 
all this in the setting of a semi-tropical vegetation, will remain as 
an indelible picture in the memory of all those who were privileged 
to accompany the British Association on its visit to South Africa. 
