What, however, most interested me, was the unlimited variety in the kinds of water plants which abounded on the floods, the sport of the winds and waves. Among them the Herminiera, known under the native name of ambatch, has already been the subject of general remark; it plays so prominent a part in the upper waters of the Nile, that it might fairly be designated the most remarkable of the native plants. My predecessor, Kotschy, who did not know that it had already been observed by Adanson in Senegambia, named it _Ædemone mirabilis_, which was corrupted into the still more wonderful name of _Anemone mirabilis_, and so appeared in many books which treated of Africa. The ambatch is distinguished for the unexampled lightness of its wood, if the fungus-like substance of the stem deserves such a name at all. It shoots up to 15 or 20 feet in height, and at its base generally attains a thickness of about 6 inches. The weight of this fungus-wood is so insignificant that it really suggests comparison to a feather. Only by taking it into his hands could any one believe that it were possible for one man to lift on to his shoulders a raft made large enough to carry eight people on the water. The plant shoots up with great rapidity by the quiet places of the shore, and since it roots merely in the water, whole bushes are easily broken off by the force of the wind or stream, and settle themselves afresh in other places: This is the true origin of the grass-barriers so frequently mentioned as blocking up the waters of the Upper Nile, and in many seasons making navigation utterly impracticable. Other plants have a share in the formation of these floating islands, which daily emerge like the Delos of tradition; among them, in particular, the vossia grass, and the famous papyrus of antiquity, which at present is nowhere to be found either in Nubia or in Egypt. On the 13th of January, on one of the thronging islands, we had our first _rencontre_ with the Shillooks. This tribe of negroes formerly extended themselves much further north than at present, having settlements on all the islands; but now they only exceptionally penetrate to this latitude (12° 30´) in their canoes of hollow tamarind stems. The Baggara, meanwhile, are ever gaining a firmer footing on the river banks, and have already with their flocks ventured far to the east of the stream into the land of the Dinka. [Sidenote: MISFORTUNE.]