BOTANY 
217 
I have not observed in British Central Africa the curious swelling of the 
stem either of the Borassus or Hyphaene which is so noticeable in other parts 
of Africa, such as the East Coast or the Congo Basin. 
A wild date grows either on high mountain slopes which are well watered 
or on the banks of large rivers or the shores of a lake. It is a handsome palm; 
though occasionally when growing to a great height the stem becomes spindly 
and has a tendency to curve and lean. The fronds are extremely green and 
never have that glaucous tint so characteristic of the date palm. The fruit 
when ripe is just eatable. It looks 
and tastes like a very poor form 
of date. 
The cocoanut palm should do 
well in the vicinity of all our 
lakes and rivers judging by the 
examples already growing at 
Kotakota and on the Central 
Shire. The fruit produced at 
Kotakota is excellent. 
Handsome Cycads grow on 
the lower slopes of Mount Mlanje. 
I have not observed them else¬ 
where. Wild bananas (Musa 
ensete ) grow on the hillsides. 
They are really beautiful objects ; 
the trunk is much thicker and 
the foliage more statuesque and 
ample than in the cultivated 
species. They would be familiar 
objects to Londoners, as allied 
forms are planted in the London 
parks during the summer. 
Although it forms an abomin¬ 
able growth to force one’s way 
through on account of the stiff 
spear-blades, the Phragmites reed 1 
can be an object of great beauty 
with its enormous flower-plumes 
of grey-white. But the leaves 
though not exactly rigid are stiff 
and have a sharply-pointed ter¬ 
mination, and these points pierce 
the skin if abruptly encountered. 
There are innumerable other 
grasses, handsome in the outline 
of their growth and beautiful in 
their flowering. One small, low 
grass in the height of the rainy 
season spreads the ground with 
a fleecy carpet of pale mauve, its 
abundant inflorescence being of 
1 P. communis. PLUMES AND YOUNG SHOOT OF PHRAGMITES 
