94 PREFACE. 
the proportion of Dicotyledons to Monocotyledons cannot 
be entirely depended upon, as it stands in this list; but that 
the latter should be rated somewhat higher ; because Professor 
Parlatore, who kindly undertook to describe the grasses, 
left several in the English collections untouched, and did 
not inspect those contained in the Cape de Verd collec- 
tion of the Museum of Paris. Add to this, the fugacious 
nature of many Monocotyledonous genera renders theit 
collection by a casual visitor doubtful; whereas of many 
Dicotyledons and Ferns some remains may be found at 
all seasons. 
Of our 250 species, upwards of 48, or nearly a fifth, 
are either found in the Canaries or belong to decidedly 
Canarian genera and forms: about 25, or a tenth, belong 
to the Arabico-Nubian region: the Mediterranean series 
is represented by about a twelfth. The remainder arè 
either common to most tropical regions, or Senegambian, 0 
belonging to the islands. It is singular that in a country 
contiguous to the Old World, and amongst so restricted 
a number of plants, nearly a third should turn out to be 
species previously undescribed; although Mr. Bentham had 
already published two .Labiate and three Scrophularinec from 
the collections of Forbes and Brunner. These prefatory | 
remarks may be terminated with one word in justification 0 
our title of Spicilegia Gorgonea. It must certainly be conceded, 
of all that lay that beyond the “ Fortunate Isles" the geogr? 
phical knowledge of the ancients was exceedingly vag 
Nevertheless the text of Pliny shows that they had 4 
competent notion even of the Niger, its divergence int? 
many streams or £xrrorüs, as mentioned by Ptolemy, 
its gradual rise, like that of the Nile, after the tropi 
rains, which is recorded by Pliny. After the Canaries 
Ptolemy speaks of the promontory called Gannaria or Cape 
Blanco: near it is the island of Arguin, supposed to " 
the Cerne of Pliny. The next promontory mentioned 5 
the Hesperian Ceras, which can hardly be any other tha? 
that of Cape Verd, where the continent is most pro 
