Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/437

FAUNA OF MASAI LAND. 868 aspect, but recall rather the general physiognomy of the woodlands in West Euroi)e. The valleys between Ji,000 and 6,000 feet are extensively overgrown with the musa ensete, or wild banana of Abyssinia. The lovely tree-ferns, which are intermingled with the vegetation of the lower slopes, continue to ascend as high as the line of 8,000 feet. A few hundred yards higher up they are mostly repluce<l by giunt heaths of the common erica genus, growing to the size of tallish trees ; and here ulso the stems and brunches of the trees are densely hung with mosses, orchilla-lichen, or delicate epiphytic ferns. An extraordinary conipo.«ite plant, named from its discoverer seiiecio Johnstoni, flourishes in the marshy ground, and some.imes grows to a height of 20 feet. From a distance it looks somewhat like a banana, with huge broad leaves at the summit of a slim black trunk, but with yellow flowers like a groundsel, to which it is allied. Some of these curious plants are met as far up as 14,000 feet, in regions where the snow lodges in some seasons. Farther up the flowering vegeta- tiiin is represented only by i-oma low plants, such as dwarf heathers, beyond which nothing is seen except red or green lichens, yellowish sands, rocks, and snowtields. The species of these higher regions are connected on the one hand with those of Abyssinia, and on the other with the Drakenberg Alpine flora. Johnston also describes some varieties which show a certain affinity to the characteristic forms of tropical Af lica, and which appear to have been slowly modified in order gradually to adapt themselves to the new conditions of life in the higher altitudes. But two distinct genera seem to be altogether peculiar to Kilima-Njaro, or at least have hitherto been met nowhere else. On the other hand the superb calodendroiis of the Cape regions, which till recently were supposed to extend no farther north than Natal, are now known to be common on the slopes both of Kilima-Njaro and Kcnia. FAtNA. Some specie*? of birds frequenting the Kilima-Njaro woodlands are new to science, and on the surrounding plains a variety of the ostrich (xfrnf/ziits dinaoides) has been discovered which differs from the common species. Although quad- rupeds of the mammal order differ in no respects from those of the surrounding regions, the explorer is surprised to meet certain species at such great altitudes on the flanks of the mountain. Thus the elephant roams over its valleys and rocks up to an altitude of over 13,000 feet ; the lion and the leopard do not range so high, but are still met as far as 8,000 feet. Monkeys, and especially baboons, are very uumt reus. They keep for the most part in the neighbourhood of the plan- tations, where they live on terms of friendship, or at least of mutual forbearance, with the natives. The colobus, however, with his magnificent black and white fur coat, which is much prized as an ornament by the Masai warriors, alwa3-s carefully shuns the vicinity of human habitations. Sportsmen also occasionally meet a member of the canine family which differs from the jackal, but like him is of nocturnal habits. 120— At