. The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in central Africa. before theMakonde had been thinned by the slave-trade. As soon asa garden is deserted, a thick crop of trees of the same sortsas those formerly cut down springs up, and here the processof woody trees starving out their fellows, and occupyingthe land without dense scrub below, has not had time towork itself out. Many are mere poles, and so intertwinedwith climbers as to present the appearance of a ships ropesand cables shaken in among them, and many have woodystems as thick as an eleven-inch hawser. One species niaybe likened to the s
. The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in central Africa. before theMakonde had been thinned by the slave-trade. As soon asa garden is deserted, a thick crop of trees of the same sortsas those formerly cut down springs up, and here the processof woody trees starving out their fellows, and occupyingthe land without dense scrub below, has not had time towork itself out. Many are mere poles, and so intertwinedwith climbers as to present the appearance of a ships ropesand cables shaken in among them, and many have woodystems as thick as an eleven-inch hawser. One species niaybe likened to the scabbard ofa dragoons sword, but alongthe middle of the flat sideruns a ridge, from whichsprings up every few inchesa bunch of inch-long straightsharp thorns. It hangs straightfor a couple of yards, but asif it could not give its thornsa fair chance of mischief, it a Thom-ciimber. suddenly bends on itself, and all its cruel points are now atright angles to what they were before. Darwins observationshows a great deal of what looks like instinct in these c 2. 20 LIVINGSTONES LAST JOUENALS. [Chap. I. climbers. This species seems to be eager for mischief; itstangled limbs hang out ready to inflict injury on all passers-by. Another climber is so tough it is not to be brokenby the fingers; another appears at its root as a young-tree, but it has the straggling habits of its class, as maybe seen by its cords stretched some fifty or sixty feet off;it is often two inches in diameter; you cut it through and find it reappear forty yards off. Another climber is like the leaf of an aloe, but convolutedas strangely as shavings from the plane of a carpenter. Itis dark green in colour, and when its bark is taken off it isbeautifully striated beneath, lighter and darker green, likethe rings of growth on wood; still another is a thin stringwith a succession of large knobs, and another has its barkpinched up all round at intervals so as to present a greatmany cutting edges. One sort need
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Keywords: ., bookauthorhoracewa, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1874
