Madagascar

There are many fine flowering trees, such as Poinciana regia, presenting a mass of scarlet flowers ; Colvillia racemosa, with yellow flowers ; Astrapaea Wallichii, striking attention from its abundant flowers ; and species of Cryptostegia, a purple-flowered creeper, and Strongylodon, another creeper with cream-coloured blossoms. On the east coast two orchids, species of Angraecum, with large white waxy flowers, attract the attention of every traveller during June and July by their abundance and beauty. Some 32o species of fern have been collected, and there are large numbers of spiny and prickly plants, as well as numerous grasses, reeds and rushes, many of them of great service in the native manufactures of mats, hats, baskets, etc.

To sum up, one may group these different species into four types of plant associations : (I) The prairie, the most widespread, covering most of the central plateau; (2) the savoka, formed where the forest is replaced by rice-cultivation and a kind of brushwood, on soil which may serve to grow tropical plants, cof fee, cocoa, etc. ; (3) the forest, discussed above; (4) the scrub vegetation of the scouts, analogous to the South African bush. The number of endemic genera now known is 148. Of the 3,178 species of plants whose localities have been determined, 35% are peculiar to the eastern region, 27.5% to the central, and 22% to the western. One natural order, Chlaenaceae, is strictly con fined to Madagascar. A small proportion of the species are Asian, but not African; and the flora of the mountains corresponds closely with that of the great ranges of the tropical zone of Africa. The general plan of the flora follows thoroughly the same lines as that of the tropical regions of the Old World.

Among the food-giving plants are rice—the staff of life, to the majority of the Malagasy—in many varieties, maize, millet, man ioc, yams, sweet potatoes, arrowroot. which is largely used by the western tribes—as well as numerous vegetables, many of them of foreign introduction. The majority of the fruits have been introduced.

Inhabitants.

The population (1931) was 3,701,770, including 23,076 French and 13,460 foreigners. The average density is from Live to six persons per sq.km. ; the centre and the east are the most populous regions. The natives, collectively known as Mala gasy, are divided into a considerable number of tribes, each having its distinct customs. The majority of the inhabitants are proba bly derived, the lighter portion of them from the Malayo-Polyne sian stock, and the darker races from the Melanesian, who reached the island with the aid of the equatorial winds and currents. The population shares a number of characters with the peoples of the Indian and Pacific archipelagoes, physical appearance, mental habits, customs, and, above all, language. Their traditions also point in the same direction. There is an Arab element, introduced especially in the 9th century, on both the north-west and south east coasts; and it appears that most of the families of the ruling classes in those parts of the island are descended from Arabs, who married native women. Numerous Africans were

brought into Madagascar as slaves ; they are the Makao of the west and the Masombiky of the interior. The Hova became the dominant tribe from the beginning of the 19th century; they ap pear to be the latest immigrants, and are the lightest in colour; they are of Mongoloid type and also the most civilized of all the tribes of the island.

Unity of language is the true link uniting all the Malagasy, in spite of marked differences of dialect. Van der Tuuk, Marre de Marin and W. E. Cousins have shown conclusively the close re lationships between the language of the Malagasy and those of the Malayo-Polynesian regions ; similar connections exist, espe cially in grammatical construction, between the Malagasy anc the Melanesian languages. English missionaries were the first to establish a grammar for the Malagasy language, there being no written symbols. Malagasy, nevertheless, is very full in many of its verbal and other forms, while it also exhibits some curious de ficiencies. It is an agglutinative language, very soft and musical, full of vowels and liquids, and free from all harsh gutturals. Native oratory abounds in figures, metaphors and parables; and a great many folk-tales, songs, legends and proverbs give ample evidence of mental ability and imaginative powers.

Native society in Imerina among the Hova was formerly di vided into three great classes : the Andriana, or nobles ; the Hova, freemen or commoners ; and the Andevo, or slaves ; but these last became free by a proclamation issued in 1896. The Andriana are, strictly speaking, royal clans, being descendants of Malayan chiefs. They form a very select caste, possessing many privileges, such as special terms of salutation, the use of the smaller scarlet umbrella (the larger one was the mark of royal rank), the right to build a particular kind of tomb, etc. The Hova, or com moners, form the mass of the population of Imerina. This is a special and restricted sense of the word Hova, which, in its wid est sense, is a tribal name, including all ranks of people in Imerina. They are composed of a large number of tribes, who usually intermarry strictly among themselves, as indeed do fami lies, so that property and land may be kept together. The third great division was the slave population, which since 1896 has become merged in the mass of the people. The Mozambiques, or African slaves, who had been brought from the African coast by Arab dhows, were in 1877 formally set free by an agreement with the British Government. The Hova have stronger social institu tions than the other Malagasy tribes, organized States more strongly administered by hereditary chiefs, who impose their au thority upon the whole country. The Hova are temperate, hard working, vigorously disciplined, with a profound love for their country.