vestigation of the vegetable products, and I was there agreeably 
surprised to find most extensive samples, in the Portuguese de- 
partment, of the raw material, fibre, and manufactured articles, 
ship-cables, rope, beautiful cordage, etc., of the same material, 
and amongst ‘The Products of Angola,’ it is thus stated in my 
‘Report :'—“ Fibre, marked, from Sanseviera Angolensis, this 
latter being a MS. name of Dr. Wellwitsch for a remarkable spe- 
cies of Sanseviera, with long, stout, terete leaves, which is in culti- 
vation at Kew. The cordage and rope made of this plant appear 
to the eye of excellent quality, whatever experience may prove 
them to be.”"—Experiments recently made with this cordage have 
shown it to be the strongest and best fitted for deep-sea sound- 
_ ing of any fibre known ; indeed this is the less surprising, seeing 
that other species of Sanseviera (the well-known S. Zeylanica and 
Guineensis, for example) are cultivated in almost all tropical — 
countries on account of the strength and durability of the fibre, 
under the name of Bowstring Hemp. 
Our Gardens having lately received from Mauritius, through 
Mr. Duncan, living roots of 8. cylindrica of Bojer, in the 
‘Hortus Mauritianus,’ without note or description, I have been 
agreeably surprised to find that the two plants are identical. It 
is indeed stated that the 8. cylindrica is a native of Zanzibar, 
on the east coast of* Africa, and is only known in cultivation in 
the Botanic Gardens of Mauritius. I have no means then of 
ascertaining whether this curious plant has been introduced by — 
the Portuguese from their settlements on the east coast of Africa — 
to Angola on the west, or vice versd; or whether, as appears to 
be the case with other plants, it is an aboriginal on both sides of — 
that great continent, and more or less, possibly, of the interior. — 
Dr. Livingstone told me he was very familiar with the J/é in se- _ 
veral districts of the western interior of Africa towards Angola. — 
It flowered with us for the first time in August, 1858, and. 
though the blossoms have little to recommend them, the plant 
deserves a place in all collections where the useful products of 4 
vegetables are appreciated, and many a piece of waste land nm — 
our tropical colonies might be profitably employed in the cultiva- x 
ok of it for its fibre. It grows rapidly, and requires almost no aa 
Desor. Perennial. Roots coarse and fleshy. Plants throwing ’ 
out runners from the base and gs | 
rs fr eedily sendin oots. 
Leaves all radical, tufted, few, nb tian eight Pain tuft, — 
and not so many unless the short, external ones, which almost 
resemble scales and are more or less furrowed on the upper side, 
be reckoned ; the rest vary in length, from six to eight inches 
to three feet, erect or erecto-patent, quite terete, solid within, 
oceupied by firm, fleshy, cellular matter and copious fibre, of 
