156 ON THE VEGETATION OF WEST EQUINOCTIAL AFRICA. 
of Anthericacee, Drosera, Disa, Corchorus, and Triumfetta. I have 
also found in the marshes quite a new and highly interesting 
Monocotyledonous family represented by five species, which in its 
characters somewhat resembles Centrolepide. I am firmly con- 
vinced that this new family will be received by all phytologists as 
quite original, and will be considered as a contribution to the 
filling up of the vacancies which exist to this day between the 
true Cyperacee and the Enantioblaste. Not less variety is found 
in the Cryptogamic Flora of Pungo Andongo, among which par- 
ticularly the Fungi are remarkable. Polyporoidee, Agaricoidea, 
and Spheriacee are extremely numerous, in beautiful forms and 
bright colours. I have observed about 300 species; and of most 
of them I have collected illustrative specimens, which now all lie 
safely in my English Herbarium. Among the Alge are espe- 
cially to be noticed many sorts of Scytonema, which here compose, 
as the Sphagna do in Europe, the swampy ground for the so- 
called peat plants ( plante turfose), and in whose thickly-matted 
turf Drosere, Utricularie, a kind of Xyris, and many Hepatice 
and Musci usually take root. Of Musci there were in all about 
eighty species, of Lichenes above a hundred; of Filices, on the 
whole and including the insulares, nearly a hundred species, 
among which are two Filices arborea, two Platyceria, two Ly- 
godia, three Hymenophylla, one Marattia, one Gleichenia, &c. 
There are rarely met with more than six kinds of Lycopodia, for 
the most part extremely pretty Selaginelle. I must also remark, 
with regard to the Alge, that two Rhodophycee, namely, two 
Hildenbrantia, are found in the brooks between Golungo Alto 
and Pungo Andongo, and indeed in such abundance, that certain 
parts of the brooks assume a blood-colour or purple dye. 
The haste with which I have been compelled to compile this 
letter will be in some degree an excuse for the confusion which 
would necessarily follow in enumerating the different families, as 
I have mentioned them only just as they presented themselves 
one by one to my memory. However, I permit myself to express 
the hope that this enumeration, although rather confused, will at 
least be sufficient to give a general idea of the riches and variety 
of the flora of the interior of Africa. As soon as I have put my 
herbarium in better order, and have arranged, in a preliminary way, 
those plants which can only be determined in Europe, I intend to 
give a general summary of all the plants which I have observed 
on the continent and the adjacent islands, together with indica- 
tions relative to their propagation and distribution. As regards 
