Through the Semliki Valley 213 
senecio and stalk lobelia, nowhere in the African alps attains 
so prodigious a development as on Ruwenzori. 
“ On our way the vegetation was formed chiefly of Erica arhorea. 
The younger specimens are almost like juniper shrubs; the older 
are tree-like, four metres or more high, with knotted stems and 
very bent and twisted boughs, which bear at their ends, in small, 
compact masses, the tiny-leafed, deep blue blooms. The stems 
and boughs are thickly covered with cushions of mosses and liver¬ 
wort, and big, flabby, jelly-like patches of tree-moss, also the 
long, grey beard-moss of the Usnea family. The whole effect, 
especially when mists are gathering, gives a very weird and 
unsubstantial impression, as of a home of spectral hobgoblins 
and mountain gnomes. The ground is covered with thick carpets 
of swamp-moss, numerous hefatica, and an exquisite feathered 
moss, the Breutelia Stuhlmanni. The masses of sphagnum are so 
wet that they look like fully-saturated sponges. Among the 
ericacecE are the shrubs or small trees of Rafanea fellucidostriata 
Gilg.) Olinia macrofhylla Gilg.^ and the striking but somewhat 
rare Yaccinium Stanleyi Schwfh.y an African bilberry, whose 
fruit is very similar to the European variety. I had already 
come across it on Sabinjo amongst the volcanoes. In addition 
to the splendid bushes of big, beautiful everlasting Helichrysum 
formosissimuMy two orchids are especially noteworthy, Satyrium 
crassicaulcy with pale pink, and Visa Stairsiiy with dark rose 
red or purple blooms, fine plants which are met with on the 
volcanoes, and are reminiscent of many species of orchids of 
our meadows. 
“ Climbing on in the ericacecc region, we came upon an old 
camping place, which we thought of naming our ‘lower Belgian 
camp.’ We did not learn much by our advance, for we were 
unable that day to see the higher mountains; we only discovered 
that we should have to progress along the same ridge over several 
summits, and learnt from natives that higher up there was 
supposed to be another ‘Belgian camp.’ 
“ Should we shift our camp higher up ? It would have been 
simply impossible to wind our way through the dense ericacece 
