BOTANICAL APPENDICES 
229 
Msumbuti grows anywhere on sandy soil. Its bark is used in making bark-cloth, 
and also bark-rope. When dry the timber makes good firewood. 
Napiri 1 grows on flat, open, wet plains, also on higher ground. The natives 
use the wood in making pestles for pounding grain, as it is hard and heavy, it makes 
good firewood. 
Mlombwn grows anywhere on sandy soil or on the hills. By partially burning it 
makes good charcoal. The sap is red and is sticky to the touch. The natives make 
mortars, drums, spoons, pestles, etc. It makes beautiful boards. The bark is used as 
medicine for nettlerash. The fruit is used in pleuritic pains of the chest. It is roasted, 
and the ash is punctured into the painful spot. 
Nkomwa grows near a stream. It is used in making drums, pestles, spoons, pillows. 
It is a very light wood, and makes good boards. The leaves are small, and the bark 
is thin. 
Mjombo 2 grows near streams or on sandy soil. The fruit is eaten by baboons. 
Natives make bark-cloth and strong bark-rope. 
Mkalate grows on sandy soil, especially near the foot of hills. It is used in making 
wall posts for houses, and roofing. 
Balisa grows on high ground. It makes into good boards. The wood of it is very 
hard. The natives here make good pestles of it. 
■Nkako grows near streams or in clumps of forest trees. Natives make head-rests of it, 
and wooden arrow-heads for shooting small birds. The wood is good and hard. 
Mlendimilo grows on high ground or on hills. It blossoms into flowers on the 
approach of the rainy season. Natives use the wood for making drums, which are strong 
and give out plenty of sound. Chips of the bark are used in medicine. 
Mbanga grows on high ground. It is an exceedingly hard wood. The leaves are 
used as medicine in headache. They are pounded or steeped in a pot or basin, and the 
face is washed with the water. Sometimes simply the smell of the leaves is sufficient. It 
makes an excellent medicine, and effects a cure after repeated applications. When dry 
the wood makes good firewood which leaves no ash. 
Mlambep the largest tree in this country, grows near water. It produces a fruit called 
malambe, the inside of which is white and is eaten thus :—the inside is scooped out, 
mixed with water, and eaten. Large strips of the wood are taken and beaten, so as to 
form a fibre from which cord is made. The tree produces very few leaves. 
Mkongomwa is a good tree for shade. It grows near the River Shire, and also in the 
Mangoni country. 
Ngosa grows on flat plains near rivers. The wood on being cut is very soft. The 
bark is used in making cord for weaving nets or sewing sleeping mats. The fruit is 
roasted and mixed with tobacco snuff as a flavouring. 
Mlundo grows anywhere on sandy soil. The leaves are small; the wood is hard : 
the fruit is inedible. It is used as medicine for the stomach by steeping the bark and 
drinking the water, or by twisting it into a cord and wearing the cord tied round the waist. 
Chikujumbu grows on sandy soil or near a stream. The bark is covered with small 
scales. One is growing in the Square at Blantyre Mission. The wood is used for 
making mortars, pestles, spoons and pillows. 
Chumbu is used as stomach medicine. The bark is chipped off and steeped, and 
the water is drunk. It is also used in treating boils. The boil is opened with a sharp 
point made of this wood which prevents it recurring again. The tree grows on sandy 
soil near ant-hills. It is a very soft wood. 
1 Copaifera sp., allied to the Mopane or “ironwood” tree of Livingstone.—H. H. J. 
2 Brachystegia longifolia. —LI. II. J. 8 The Baobab— Adansonia digitata. — II. II. J. 
