I collected also during our travels some specimens of plants for Dr. A. B. Rendle of the British Museum, and was fortunate to secure some interesting species, four of which were new, and not formerly recorded, and have been described in the Journal of Botany (October, 1916), while others, unfortunately, were too fragmentary to determine, or to give more than a genus name, though nine of them are possibly new species.

The East African plants obtained were:

(Species possibly new when genus only is given.)

A. B. Rendle.

British Museum (Nat. Hist.) 30th May, 1916.

In collecting in this way, in odd hours, one was constantly moving about, and to that, strange as it may seem, I ascribe my good fortune in keeping fit and free of sickness during the first two years of service in the tropics. I feel sure, even if one feels listless and exhausted, that it is a mistake to lie about camp in the oppressive heat when off duty, pestered by flies and camp dust, and brooding over your discomforts. Some of the men of the battalion became interested in this searching for curious things, and, after a time, it was noticeable that they were the ones most contented with the hardships they endured, and among the fittest on trek. Africa had undoubtedly the power to depress men’s spirits in no light manner, and thus, to find something to do and think about, in any interval of idleness, was a good thing.

PESTS OF CAMP AND TREK

Lastly, I will refer to the pests of camp-life and trek.

The common house-fly was a terrible pest at all times. They swarmed over everything, and were a particular source of annoyance when food was being prepared, or being eaten. It was impossible to take steps to reduce their number in the limitless areas through which we were constantly passing, and there was nothing for it but to endure the plague, while, whenever camp was established for a few days, all rubbish was scrupulously burned or buried so that they would have as little to attract them to our neighbourhood as possible.