BOTANY 
213 
So much for beauty of colour; now for the beauty of outline. There are 
five species of palm abundantly represented in British Central Africa: the 
Borassus, the Hyphaene, the Wild date, the Raphia, and the Oil palm. 1 The 
cocoanut palm grows at one or two places on the Shire River and on Lake 
Nyasa, but it is an introduction from the East Coast. The most graceful of 
RAPHIA PALM FRUITING 
1 The oil palm, either the Elais guineensis of West Africa or a nearly-allied species grows in North- 
West Nyasaland. It is found chiefly in the very fertile plain lying between the Nkonde mountains and the 
Lake shore; also in the well-watered hill country of the Atonga. So far as I am aware it is not found 
further south than the latitude of Bandawe—about the middle of Lake Nyasa—nor does it seem to reach 
any part of the east coast of that lake. It may be reported eventually from the Chambezi River which 
flows down the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau and becomes the Upper Congo, but it has not been recorded up 
to the present. Therefore, after quitting Lake Nyasa and ascending to the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau one 
does not encounter the oil palm again until the south shore of Tanganyika is reached. Here there are a 
few examples but it is not abundant. On the Upper Luapula, however, Mr. Sharpe found it growing in 
considerable numbers and apparently identical with the West Coast species ; but this may be the result of 
direct introduction by the Alunda—a West African people who make considerable use of its oil for food. 
Mr. Whyte and myself have done our best to introduce the oil palm into South Nyasaland and the nuts 
planted in the Zomba Botanical Gardens have already grown to the height of a couple of feet. Even if 
there was no idea of exporting the palm oil and thus competing with West Africa it would be extremely 
useful locally for cooking purposes. The illustration I give here is done from a photograph taken of a 
clump of oil palms at the north end of Lake Nyasa. 
