On the hill tobacco, once cultivated here by the natives, now grows wild. Large beds of scarlet cannæ, Cape gooseberries, hemlocks, and blackjacks are seen in most parts of the hill, while every flower of the veld is represented. Monkey-ropes, wild vines, wild orange, fig, nut, greengage, currant, and raspberry flourish here. The kafir-baum, which flowers profusely when leafless early in the spring, and abounds at Zimbabwe, provides a striking contrast of brilliant scarlet to the grey granite cliffs in front of which it flourishes. The flat-topped umbrella trees (_mimosa_) impart an odd effect to the hill. The Zimbabwe creeper grows very extensively on the north and west sides of the hill. Cacti, euphorbia, and liliums, also bulbous plants, are multifarious, while tall aloes give an old-world appearance to the hill. Palms with fronds 10 ft. long, tree-ferns 8 ft. high, and large areas of _Osmunda regalis_ (royal fern) are to be seen in most of the glens and gorges of this locality. The blue lotus lily (_Nymphæa stellata_) grows in most pools of water, while the yellow everlasting flower (_Helipterum incanum_) is plentiful, and the bright red sealing-wax-coloured flower (_Erythrina kaffra_) shots the veld grass as daisies do an English meadow. The sugar bush (_Protea mellifera_) though present is not found in quantity. Bamboos grow in the neighbourhood, also sugar-cane, and wild cotton. The mahobohobo is not indigenous to the country, but is the most usual tree found here. Its area covers many square miles of this district. Like the wild fig, the mahobohobo fruit ripens in the spring only. CHAPTER V ZIMBABWE NATIVES 1. NATIVES AND RUINS It may easily be imagined that researches as to the origin of the ruins cannot be furthered by inquiries instituted among the present native peoples as to any history or tradition concerning these structures. The chief value, however, of such inquiries is that they enable us to realise in what conditions both the ruins and the district have existed during the last few centuries. But such inquiries only take us back to a period of two hundred years short of that time when Portuguese writers referred to these buildings.