392 SIR J. D. HOOKER ON THE PLANTS OF THE 



List of the Plants collected by Mr. Thomson, F.E.G.S., on the 

 Mountains of Eastern Equatorial Africa, by Prof. Daniel 

 Olitee, F.E.S. ; with Observations on their Distribution, 

 by Sir J. D. Hooker, F.E.S. 



[Read loth January, 1885.] 



In offering to the Linnean Society the accompanying catalogue, 

 by Professor Oliver, of the small but very interesting herbarium 

 made by Mr. Thomson in the highlands of Eastern Equatorial 

 Africa, and presented by him to Kew, I think it may interest the 

 Fellows if I preface it with some results in botanical geography 

 which I have gleaned from a study of its contents. 



I may premise that of the mountain flora of Equatorial Africa 

 nothing whatever was known previous to 1860, when Mr. Gustav 

 Mann, who had acted as botanist to Dr. Baikie's Niger Expedi- 

 tion, was (on Sir William Hooker's recommendation) instructed 

 by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to explore botani- 

 cally the mountain-peaks of the Gulf of Guinea and its islands. 

 Mr. Mann accordingly made several ascents of Clarence Peak, 

 Fernando Po, alt. 9469 feet ; one of St. Thomas's Island, alt. 7500 

 feet ; and two of the Cameroons range, the culminating point of 

 which he found to be 13,100 feet. The results of Mr. Mann's 

 admirable labours are well known to this Society, being published 

 in the 6th and 7th volumes of our Journal. To those results 

 the following remarks may be regarded as complementary, and 

 consisting of an extension of our knowledge of the mountain 

 flora of Equatorial Africa from the western coast of the continent 

 to the eastern. 



Of collections made in the highest regions of Eastern Africa 

 prior to those of Mr. Thomson, the only one known to me is that 

 of the enterprising missionary, the late Eev. Mr. New, who was 

 the first to reach and ascend the great mountain Kilimanjaro 

 (in 1871), and who, at Dr. Kirk's instigation, collected a few 

 flowering plants, about twenty in all, in the uppermost zone of 

 vegetation. These were named by Prof. Oliver, and are pub- 

 lished in Mr. New's Narrative. They are characteristic of a 

 higher elevation than that obtained by Mr. Thomson on that 

 mountain. Amongst them are two northern genera not collected 

 by the latter traveller, Artemisia and Bartsia, which I have 

 added to the list from which the following conclusions are drawn. 



