Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/30

 14 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. from north to south certain characteristic species become gradually replaced by others. Thus the hi/phane giiineensi^, so common between the Congo estuary and Ambriz, is not found on the southern coastlands, and in the Mossamedes district a complete transition takes place from the flora of the equatorial regions to that of the closed fluvial basins in South Africa. In this southern province the great euphorbias, for instance, are no longer seen, their place being gradually usurped by the various gum-bearing species. Welwitsch's botanical record for the whole of the Angola territory comprises three thousand two hundred and twenty-seven species, of which one thousand eight hundred and ninety are flowering plants. In this numerous catalogue are included several indigenous forms, such as cactuses, a family formerly supposed to be found only in the New World, but which are here grouped about the crests of the plateau at great distances from the coast, and from all centres of colonisation. A number of the local plants are highly prized by the natives on account of their supposed magical properties, notably the poisonous erythrophlreum guineense, the bark of which {nhissa) is used in judicial trials by ordeal, and the ndui (decamera Jovis tonantis), a shrub whose branches are suspended above the houses as a protec- tion against lightning. In the sandy tracts of the south, the roots of the euphor- bias afford nutriment to a remarkable parasitic plant of the genus hydnom, which dwells underground for the greater part of its existence, and then suddenly projects above the surface a solitary stalk, whose extremity expands into a large red flower, with a smell like that of putrid meat. This plant is endowed with many virtues in the eyes of the natives, who employ its sap to give greater strength to their fishing-lines and fiets, and also utilise it especially as a specific against several maladies. On the other hand, the fruits of very few indigenous plants are gathered for alimentary purposes. Thus, although the Angolan flora comprises no less than thirty-two species of the vine, in but few localities are the grapes either eaten or pressed for making a little wine. The mariamhame, or coffee shrub, however, which grows wild in the forests of the interior, supplied the early planters with the first stock cultivated by them. Welwitsch has also, found in the Angolan forests the large Jjiberian species, which is already replacing the Arabian variety on so many plantations. All other plants, whose roots, leaves, fruits or seeds serve as food, have been introduced in Angola as in other parts of Africa either from Asia or from the New World. The mango, one of these exotics, which however thrives admirably, is rarely met in some districts, and especially along the banks of the Cuanza, where its shade is supposed to cause ill luck. Fauna of Angola. Transformations analogous to those of the flora have also taken place in the Angolan fauna. Just as the indigenous plants disappear before foreign intruders, wild animals withdraw farther and farther from the white man, his dogs and other domestic breeds. Elephants are no longer seen in the neighbourhood of