Bambusa arundinacea (Shemal). The bamboo is not indigenous in any part of the country, but groves are planted on the king’s grounds, in order to supply poles for the royal tents.
The following are the grasses found in every pasture:—Lolium temulentum (Enkerdad), much dreaded as poison; Chloris spec. (Agerma); Andropogon distachyum (Gasha); Anthistiria spec. (Sambalet); Sporobolus spec. (Ya teff sahr) the seeds eaten as those of the teff; Poa brizoides (Ya Kiri sahr); Kiri is a species of finch, which eats the small seeds; Setaria spec. (Ya oosha Sendado).
The next order, that of the Lilies, is not so numerous as might be expected of Africa, but when a species does appear, it covers vast tracts with its lovely colours. None but the edible kinds of Allium are cultivated in Abyssinia, ornamental gardens being quite unknown throughout the country. Some grow in swampy meadows, especially those with bulbs, more properly ranking as lilies: others, with perennial stem, are found on dry waste places, such as the Asparagus and the Aloe. The whole year round, the meads are graced by the lovely blossoms of two Commelineae, viz. Commelina Africana, and Tradescantia spec. Both having small oval tubers, they are called Off angoon and Off gola, i.e. “bird’s egg” (off, a bird; angoon and gola, or more commonly angola, an egg). These tubers are eaten in times of famine. One ixia, a very beautiful kind, of the morasses around Angollála, springs up immediately after the termination of the rains. Haemanthus coccineus, Amaryllis clavata, Gloriosa spec, are rare plants of Efát; Bulbocodium spec, is a very transient form, observable a few days after the “rains of Bounty.” Onions and garlic (Neitch Shongort) are favourite vegetables; various kinds of Aloe (Ya jib Shongort) adorn the wastes of Efát, and furnish good fibres for making ropes. Asparagus retrofractus (Saréti), and Asparagus Ethiopicus (Kastanitcha), are fructiferous and climbing shrubs: a green twig of the first, stuck in the hair of the sinciput, is a token of exultation after a successful encounter with an enemy or wild beast; the wood of the second is of peculiar hardness, and splitting well serves the Amhára scribe as a pen. Lastly, one Smilax (Ashkila) affords the stick in common use as a tooth-brush.
That equally beautiful and important order, the Orchideae, might be supposed to find its natural ground in Abyssinia, where both atmosphere and soil are so favourable; but ginger is still imported from Guráguê: arrow-root and salep are unknown, and not a single kind of the respective genera is an inhabitant either of Shoa or Efát. The real Orchideae of the forests, moreover, are few in number. Epidendrum capense, cleaving to the bark of the wild olive-tree, is the only representative of that interesting group, the Epidendreae. Of the plantain tribe, three species have been introduced from the south, but apparently with little advantage; viz. Mooz, Musa paradisiaca, a coarse kind of plantain, which is reared on some few spots in Efát for the royal table, and two species of Urania, called Ensete and Koba. These are planted in Shoa for the sake of their leaves; they seldom advance to flower and fruit, in consequence of the low temperature. The only visible difference between them is, that in the Koba the middle rib of the leaf is on the underside red, as also the stem; whilst in the Ensete both are light green. Either of these trees, when suffered to grow, attains a height of twelve feet in the stem, exceeding by far that of the Mooz; the leaves are equal in size to those of the latter, and are only used to bake bread upon. Their proper home is Guráguê, the famous seat of so many botanical riches. Seed-capsules of the Koba brought from that country contain four or five angular nuts, full of a mealy substance, like the finest arrow-root, which is boiled and given to children to make them grow; the base of the fruit is filled with a delicious pulp like that of the plantain. In Guráguê the young shoots of the Ensete form a principal part of the diet, but they are despised by the Amhára, who are not at all addicted to vegetables. The fibres are used in the manufacture of ropes and mats, which form an important article of trade with Shoa. Ensete and Koba are hardier than the Mooz; and towering above the enclosures of the lofty villages, impart an aspect not properly belonging to the landscape, and strangely contrasting with many alpine associates.
The Palms of the continents of the eastern world are, with very few exceptions, inhabitants of the sea-borders, and do not thrive at any considerable elevation or even distance inland. The coast of the Adaïel is therefore the only locality where three species of this tribe, viz. Phoenix dactylifera, Hyphaene crucifera, and Borassus flabelliformis, appear; but so scantily, that the date must be imported from Arabia. Baskets and mats are manufactured of the leaves of all, and some toddy is prepared of the Borassus especially.
The preceding enumeration of acotyledonic and monocotyledonic plants is not sufficient to determine the systematic place due to the Abyssinian vegetation in general. The Dicotyledones, comprising two-thirds of all the plants, will necessarily help to show, that although included within the tropics, the Flora of Shoa, and of some of the Galla provinces to the west, is, on the whole, subalpine. The avenues of approach to them from the eastward, evince in their scanty dress the influence of a tropical sun; and between these two extremes, a happy and most fertile province intervenes, where, by the side of the hardy grain, cotton and coffee may be raised—where a tea-plant and many species of indigo grow wild—and where, in fact, a temperate and a torrid clime exchange their products as it were upon neutral ground.
The Chlamydoblasta number but very few species in Abyssinia. One Nymphaae only, on the lakes of Shoa, and one Aristolochia (bracteata) of the Adaïel country, could be discovered. This latter, called Gerbaad, is a secret remedy with the Danákil against poisoned wounds, and in fact they are prone to attribute mysterious qualities to the most of their weeds. Pepper is not found either in a wild or cultivated state, although nothing would oppose the introduction of that favourite condiment, which at present, under the appellation of Gunda Berberi (Gunda, an ant; Berberi, hot spice) is imported from Arabia and India.
Of apetalous Gymnoblasts, some important species are to be recorded, since they form the chief pride of the forests. And justly beginning with the Coniferae, the fir (cedar), which graces the Alps of Northern Abyssinia, is replaced in Shoa by a gigantic juniper, Juniperus excelsa (Det). This noble tree of the woods as well as of the churchyards attains in its life of one century a height of upwards of one hundred and sixty feet, with four to five in diameter at the base. Growing nearly in the shape of a cypress, it throws off continually the lower branches, which shoot out almost at a right angle from the stem, so that two-thirds of the same are void of green; the top is always a pyramid, and generally scanty. The wood is very inferior, but splitting readily, it supplies, in the absence of proper carpenters’ tools, the chief timber used in the construction of huts and churches; and it forms, besides, the common fuel. Neither is any use made of the resin or berries; but twigs lopped off the melancholy trees that overshadow the cemetery, are often strewn upon the corpse before the grave is filled up. A yew tree, Taxus elongata, Sigba, also of the Shoan forests, keeps within more moderate dimensions; sixty feet in height, and five in circumference, is the utmost. The tough wood, like that of the wild olive-tree, furnishes the timber for works of art which are to last some time. To tarry beneath its shade, or to inhale the smoke of burning yew wood, is regarded as particularly noxious.
The low temperature reigning in the Alps of Abyssinia does not prohibit the growth of a species of fig, which contrasts strangely enough with the tall juniper. The Shoala, a kind of Banyan tree, with large, oval, acute, serrated, and subcordate leaves, and racemes of fruits attached only to the stem and principal branches, measures frequently seven feet in diameter, with a height of forty feet, at an age of two-score years. Its roots are partly above ground; but of secondary, or branch-roots, there is no vestige. Requiring no small space for expansion, it stands commonly on the outskirts of the forests, or quite alone, but its shade is extremely dense and unfavourable to other vegetation. The fruit, of the size of a pigeon’s egg, brown and insipid, might be eaten by people in distress. In the low country the Sycamore Fig-tree makes its appearance; it is called Worka, i.e. “the Golden,” by the Amhára, and Woda by the Galla; and has, with those of the latter nation, who are still in the bonds of idolatry, a sacred signification. Being planted over the tombs of notable persons, conjurers, or heroes, offerings are brought to it, and hung up on the branches at certain festivals, when the neighbouring tribes feast together upon that holy and neutral ground. The Worka stands always near running water, towering far over the jungle, although the undivided stem is scarcely ten feet high. The leaf has a yellow tomentum below; and the fruit forms a favourite food of monkeys and of various birds, but is not touched by man.
The Kuaraf, Gunnera spec, another plant of the same family, of Artocarpeae, is an important vegetable during the strict fast of Lent. It grows in swamps and rivulets, and is an annual low plant from a perennial root, with large radical leaves and a leafless stalk, bearing the minute flowers on a bunchy raceme. The petioles, ribs of leaves, and stalks, are eaten fresh when stripped of the epidermis; and their taste is similar to that of the sorrel. The common stinging-nettle (Sama) is, by boiling, also prepared into an indifferent food during the quadragesimal low diet. The troublesome weed grows everywhere to a height of five feet.