Flowers and many beautiful trees rarely to be met with elsewhere, grow in great profusion; amongst them the grand old baobab, that has defied winds and storms. Palms grace the country with their presence; mapani, euphorbias, aloes, cacti of every variety and beauty, with crimson flowers, mahogany, ebony, mimosas, acacias, and the beautiful matchabela, the tints of which are of a lovely crimson when springing into leaf, and when they are fully blown turn to a rich green; then again, the leghondi, with its golden yellow leaves, and others equally beautiful but unknown, make up a landscape lovely to look upon. When they fringe the river-banks, beneath which the crocodile and hippopotamus are amusing themselves, and the water-fowl and cranes are busy seeking food, with the birds of rich plumage passing from tree to tree, as pretty a landscape is made up as can be desired, backed, as all the foreground is, by gigantic castellated granite hills and quaint rocks standing out as if representing some animals, so lifelike are their outlines. When first I looked upon one representing a wolf, I could scarcely believe it was so formed by nature. As a field for agriculture none can surpass it. Corn of every kind grows to perfection. Coffee, tea, cotton, indigo, all kinds of spices, india-rubber trees, oranges, and lemons, are found wild; vegetables of all sorts, sweet potato, and many other kinds of plants. The climate is healthy away from the coast region, and water is plentiful; and, if in our hands, the land would support millions where it now keeps alive thousands of natives; and as a region for the cultivation of the cotton-plant it is the finest I may say in the world, for the cotton, which is indigenous without any cultivation, is superior to the cultivated cotton grown in America. Twenty-five thousand square miles of ground could with little trouble and expense produce as much as the British merchants require, and of superior quality. I forwarded samples to the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, in 1875, and I also left with Sir Bartle Frere, then Governor of South Africa, similar samples in 1877. As a rice-producing country, I know of no better. The Mashonas cultivate it on a small scale, and bring it to Gubuluwayo for sale to the traders and hunters on the station. The grain is larger than that which is brought to England, and less quantity is required for cooking. I have used it for years when opportunity allowed for getting it from the natives.