330 
THE KILIM A-NJARO EXPEDITION. 
nas, crimson, white, yellow, purple, and pink hibiscuses, 
lovely epiphytic orchids, white, spotted, and green, 
and ground-orchids of the genus LissocMlus —crimson- 
mauve and sulphur-yellow. Altogether, as I have 
often declared, Tropical Africa differs apparently from 
the other parts of the tropics in displaying splendid 
shows of bright-coloured flowers which really surpass 
anything we meet with in the temperate zone. 
Inland, however, a short distance from the coast 
this wealth of vegetation ceases as we cross the some¬ 
what dreary “Nyika,” or wilderness, a country poorly 
provided with water, and uncertain in its rainfall. 
But as soon as the beneficent influence of the giant 
mountains makes itself felt in moisture-laden breezes 
and dew-dropping mists, then Flora revives, and puts 
forth all her strength. In such places like Taveita 
the wealth of vegetation and the grandeur of the 
forest trees is inspiring. You feel carried back from 
our age of mean development to some past epoch, when 
vegetable life was on a scale with the strange, huge 
animal forms which marked the lusty earth’s creative 
prime. 
The lower slopes of Kilima-njaro are exquisitely 
green, and scarcely a patch of earth remains uncovered, 
but the general aspect of vegetation recalls our English 
Devonshire and not the tropics. Bushy trees crown 
the hill-tops, or choke the narrow valleys. The grassy 
downs are covered with patches of bracken and scented 
with a low-growing mint. The native lanes are bor¬ 
dered with brambles and magnificent ferns, some of 
which belong to common European genera. There 
are besides other things more properly African which 
do not mind the colder climate of the uplands, such as 
dracoenas, aloes, strychnias, balsams, and ground- 
orchids. In some of the stream-valleys the Musa 
