BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 
127 
“Some of the forest trees of Uganda offer magnificent displays 
of flowers. There is one, the Spathodea > with crimson-scarlet flowers 
larger than a breakfast cup and not very dissimilar in shape. These 
flowers grow in bunches like large bouquets, and when in full blossom 
one of these trees aflame with red light is a magnificent spectacle. 
Other trees present at certain seasons of the year a uniform mass ofi 
lilac-white flowerets, as though they had been powdered from above 
with a lavender-colored snow. 
“The india-rubber trees and lianas have white flowers, large 
and small, with yellow centers exhaling a delicious scent like jas¬ 
mine, but the blossom of one of these rubber trees is vivid scarlet. 
The Lonchocarpus trees have flowers in color and shape like the Wis¬ 
taria; from the branches of the lofty eriodendrons depend, on thread¬ 
like stalks, huge dull crimson flowers composed of innumerable 
stamens surrounded by thick carmine petals. The Erythrina trees 
on the edge of the forest seldom bear leaves and flowers at the same 
time. When in a leafless state they break out into a crimson-scarlet 
efflorescence of dazzling beauty. The Pterocarpus trees have large 
flowers of sulphur-yellow. 
“Many creepers have blossoms of orange, of greenish-white, 
pink, and mauve. Some trees or creepers ( Combretum racemosum) 
are like the Bougainvillia, throwing out wreaths and veils and cas¬ 
cades of the most exquisite mauve or red-violet, where the color is 
given by bracts, the flower itself being crimson and of small size. 
“Blue alone appears to be missing from this gamut of color in 
the forest flowers, though it is frequently present among herbaceous 
shrubs or plants growing close to the ground, and, so far as the 
trees are concerned, is often supplied by the beautiful species of 
turaco that particularly affect the forest, and by large high-flying 
butterflies. 
“Whatever may be the case in the Congo basin, where the 
forests often appear sadly lifeless, the woodlands of Uganda are full 
of color and noise from the birds, beasts, and insects frequenting 
them. Monkeys are singularly bold and frequently show themselves. 
There is the black-white colobus with the long plume-tail which 
has been already described; there is a large greenish-black Cerco « 
