TAITA TO KILIMA NJARO. 
81 
or a thorny mimosa with flattened crown and red 
trunk, like a conventional tree from a child’s box of 
toys; or, lastly, a few inconspicuous nameless slirubs, 
with leaves of a shiny grey colour, like those of most 
plants living in semi-desert countries. Once or twice 
we crossed tbe dry bed of a torrent and found therein 
a more varied but scarcely more pleasing vegetation. 
Rampant euphorbias, with fleshy, snake-like, coiling 
stems armed with horrid spikes, trailed themselves 
triumphantly over unresisting shrubs; acacias, which 
from sheer viciousness had almost done without leaves 
to bestow all their productive powers on the develop¬ 
ment of terribly efficacious thorns, threw out their 
cruel grappling-hooks over the path and ripped up our 
faces, hands, or clothing as we passed. Other plants 
of the lily tribe (debased and wicked members of a 
beautiful family) grew like swords stuck in the ground 
point upwards, and woe betide any careless person 
who put his hand on the apex of their rigid, blade¬ 
like leaves—their rapier-points would pierce his palm 
as readily as a sword of steel. But as we had crossed 
a ridge stretching out into the plain, and our path, 
from sloping upwards, descended a little on the other 
side, this fantastic vegetation, befitting the precincts 
of some horrid mediaeval monster’s lair, modified 
its repulsive character, and became intermixed with 
shrubs and grass of vivid green, while to our joy we 
descried some half a mile ahead a belt of dense purple- 
green foliage, which in these African wildernesses 
always denotes the presence of water. In fact, a few 
minutes' walk took us from the dull white glare of the 
hazy noontide in the open, shadeless waste into a cool, 
delicious bower of deep green shade, where at first, so 
great was the contrast, we blinked our eyes and could 
