BOTANY 
and has thriven wonderfully. With this we can get excellent lawns and very 
superior fodder for horses and cattle. 
Among rushes there is the king of them, the papyrus. I have referred once 
or twice before in this book to its great beauty, and will not weary my readers 
by the repetition of my descriptions. The pith of the papyrus which was used 
by the Egyptians as a material on which to write, and which has given its name 
to “ paper,” appears to possess a sugary or starchy quality, so that when the 
flattened strips of rolled-out pith are moistened the edge of one can be laid on 
the edge of the other, and will adhere to it ; and this, I believe, is the way 
sheets of paper were made. Why it should not once more be brought into use 
as a paper-making material I do not know. 
Amongst the graceful types of vegetation mention must no f be omitted of 
AN ALBIZZIA TREE 
grain happens to alight on an animal. What it intends to do is to pitch, point 
first, on the ground, which is hardened by the dry weather, and pierce its way 
through the soil by the same means that will enable it to pass through a coat 
of thick texture. The feathery plume attached to the seed acts as a kind of 
float to carry it through the air perpendicularly towards the ground. 
There is no lawn grass indigenous to Central Africa, but the Dub grass 
of Ceylon has been introduced by Mr. Whyte and the late Mr. John Buchanan, 
