158 
In the Heart of Africa 
stein successively. Mildbraed reports the vegetation as stand¬ 
ing out in harsh contrast with that of Ninagongo. 
“On Ninagongo,” he writes, “everything was in the process 
of formation. Nothing had matured. The flora of this moun¬ 
tain offers no rich booty to the botanist, but yet it is imposing 
by very reason of its monotony. The enormous base of the 
volcano is covered with a pure bamboo vegetation up to a height 
of some 3,000 metres, and this extends in broad bands as far as 
the mixed bamboo forests of the Bugoie mountain land. From 
a botanical point of view the bamboo forest is uncommonly 
monotonous. Generally speaking nothing but scrubby under¬ 
growth flourishes. The deep black vegetable soil is often 
covered by a carpet of small selaginella. Small ferns grow in 
it, different shrubs related to the stinging nettle (Fleurya^ Piled)^ 
and occasionally a pale pink balsam (Jmpatiens Eminii). Rarely, 
but more often in such spots where the bamboo is in any way 
impeded in its development, woody plants are to be found 
sprinkled here and there. Amongst these the often-mentioned 
Hypericum lanceolatum Lam.^ takes the first place. I measured 
stems of two metres in circumference, on the whole, the sturdiest 
that I had met with during the expedition. 
“Up beyond the bamboo on Karissimbi a vegetation exists 
which, perhaps, has not its like on any other African moun¬ 
tain. Even from the lava plains below one can see it gleaming 
out from between the trees like luxuriant alpine meadows clad in 
freshest green. Having passed the monotonous bamboo, one is 
amazed at stepping into quite a strange open wood formed almost 
entirely of extremely old hagenia stems. One measured 6.45 
metres in circumference. They looked almost like huge blocks 
of rock, divided at a short distance above the ground into 
gigantic overhanging boughs covered with thick mossy cushions, 
and unravelling in light branches bearing silver-grey, hairy 
pinnae, slightly reminiscent of the well-known tanners’ sumac 
{Rhus typhind). The undergrowth is composed of the pretty 
shrubs of Hypericum lanceolatum^ a beautiful vemonia of tree¬ 
like growth, and there is a fine sort of blackberry bramble which 
