150 DR, F. WELWITSCH ON THE VEGETATION 
in Dr. Lindley's ‘ Elements’ (fig. 180), he regards as offering a — 
clear indication in their venation of their petiolar origin, and 
their ovules metamorphosed into leaflets as bearing the same rela- 
tion to the carpels as the leaflets of a compound leaf to the com- 
mon petiole from which they arise. This view of the relation of 
ovules to carpels leads him to propose the following theory of their 
origin ; viz. “ that ovules are a metamorphosed state of the leaflets 
of compound leaves, ог of the lobes or parts of simple leaves ;” and 
he concludes his Paper by some observations in which this theory 
is developed more at length. 
— —M— 
Letters on the Vegetation of West Equinoctial Africa. From Dr. 
FREDERICK Wzrwrrsbk, addressed to W. W. SAUNDERS, 
Esq., V.P.LS. | 
[Read July 1st, 1858.] 
S. Paulo de Loanda, 
12 Sept., 1857. 
My HIGHLY ESTEEMED FRIEND,—A few days since, I returned 
from the interior suffering from fever, which for five weeks has daily 
attacked me. I cannot, however, refrain from sending you a hasty 
sketch of the extent and success of my botanical rambles in the 
interior of this wonderful country, with best wishes that these 
lines may find you and my other London friends in good health. 
During the first year of my residence in this country, I endea- 
voured to investigate the botanical treasures of the coast territory 
from the Quizembo River north of Ambriz as far as the mouth of 
the Coanza, which I very nearly succeeded in doing. In October 
1854 I ascended by degrees over the lower mountains, which were. 
mostly covered only with frutices, to the dark shady region of the 
mountain forests of Cazenojo and Golungo Alto, where I stayed 
nearly two years. Everything that reminds you of the flora of 
the coast and of the lower mountains disappears suddenly as if by 
magic in this region, whose highest mountain-peaks rise more than 
2000 feet. Above 300 different species of trees and more than 
400 kinds of climbing plants, closely entwined, form here a most 
magnificent primeval forest, whose ground is luxuriantly overgrown 
by more than sixty species of ferns, partly of arborescent forms. 
Amongst other most remarkable trees I found a Napoleona (ramis 
verticillatis), а Myristacacea (a noble tree 80 to 100 feet high), 
twenty-eight species of Ficus, some gigantic specimens of a Na- 
