DB. E. WELWITSCH ON WEST AFEICAN BOTANY. 185 



The flora, becoming ever poorer, from Mossamedes to Cape Negro, 

 consists chiefly of Exiphorbiea ; amongst which, however, several 

 plants of geographical interest occur, as, for example, a Cuscuta ! 

 a Pimpinella-\i\e annual Umbellifer, also several annual Phyto- 

 laccacece; as e. g. Limeitm and Giesekia, with which a Sarco- 

 stemma (remis virgatis !) is here and there associated. The almost 

 complete absence of marine Algae along nearly the whole thirty 

 geographical miles of coast between Mossamedes and Cape Negro 

 is remarkable. I could only find 2 Ulvacece and 3 Bhodophycece. 



Several miles before reaching Cape Negro the coast rises to a 

 height of about 300 to 400 feet, forming a continuous plateau, ex- 

 tending over six miles inland, as flat as a table. This tabular eleva- 

 tion, which is composed of calcareous tufa (tuf) and strata of clay, 

 is scattered all over with loose sandstone shingle, and clothed with 

 a vegetation which, though scanty, consists of plants of the highest 

 interest ; among them a dwarf tree was particularly remarkable, 

 which, with a diameter of stem often of 4 feet, never rose higher 

 above the surface than 1 foot, and which, through its entire dura- 

 tion, that not unfrequently might exceed a century, always retained 

 the two woody leaves which it threw up at the time of germination, 

 and besides these it never puts forth another. The entire plant 

 looks like a round table, a foot high, projecting over the tolerably 

 hard sandy soil ; the two opposite leaves (often a fathom long by 

 2 to 2| feet broad) extend on the soil to its margin, each of them 

 split up into numerous ribbon-like segments. As I bring some 

 specimens of this wonderful plant to Europe, together with flowers 

 and fruit, and shall thus have the opportunity of presenting it in 

 natura, it will suffice just now to append to the foregoing a short 

 notice of it in technical language.— Truncus obconicus, 1-1| ped. 

 altus, 1-5 ped. diametr., dure lignosus, apice truncato-disciformis, 

 undique resinam, ilia? Coniferarum similem, exudans ; discus nunc 

 circularis aut plerumque oblongus vel ellipticus, dure suberosus, 

 margine folia duo, opposita, glauca, ligneo-dura, crassissima, tena- 

 cissima, linearia, lata basi sessilia, in laminas inaequales plunmas 

 longitudinales dilacerata, prostrata gerens. Pedunculi ad mar- 

 ginem disci, axillares, dichotome-partiti, floriferi, vix polhcares, 

 demum sensim elongati, circiter palmares, in ramulorum (vel si 

 vis in pedicellorum) apicibus flores (ut videtur polygamos) in 

 amenta strobiliformia dense congestos gerentes. Amentaflorentia 

 2-1-pollicaria, maturescentia strobilos 1-3 pollices longos, digitum 

 crassos, obtuse tetragonos, kete rubentes, lis Abietis non absimilcs 

 sistunt. Flores (quorum hermaphrod. vidi, germinibus 



