EH 
II. On Central- African Plants collected by Major S РА PINTO. By Prof. Count FICALHO 
(Lisbon) and W. P. HIERN, M.A., F.L.S. 
(Plates III-VI.) 
Read June 16th, 1881. 
'THE specimens herein discussed were collected by Major Serpa Pinto in the month of 
August of the year 1878, along the upper course of the river Ninda, an affluent of the 
Zambesi, on the west side of the high plateau. Ав regards the climate of this locality, 
the temperature is described as variable, the weather as very dry during seven or 
eight months of the year, and very wet during two or three months. "The nature of the 
soil is metamorphic argillaceous schist; the latitude is 14^ 46' south, the longitude 
20? 56' east of Greenwich ; the elevation is 1148 metres above the ocean. 
The readings of the thermometer at 6 o'clock on the mornings of August 11, 12, and 
18, inthe year 1878, were respectively 431^, 41°, and 40° Е. During the same days the 
wind blew strongly from the east, and the sky was clear. 
In consequence of the extreme smallness of the quantity of paper in the possession of 
Major Serpa Pinto, all he did with regard to botanical collections was to convey a few 
plants from this particular point of his journey. This part of Africa is fertile and 
salubrious, though destitute of population ; and it was the first stage of the journey in which 
elephants were met with. He speaks of it as follows (* How I crossed Africa,’ vol. i. 
р. 357, English edition, 1881) :—** Оп Ше following day [10th August 1878] we penetrated 
into an extensive thorny forest, through which we had literally to cut our road. After 
afatiguing march of five hours, the most difficult and painful I had yet had in the 
country, we pitched our camp at the source of the river Ninda, having left a great part 
of our wearing apparel on the brambles by the wayside. .... I had then at length 
reached the birthplace of that [p. 358] Ninda which was so renowned for the ferocity of 
the denizens of its banks. The lions which favoured it had not yet succeeded in 
devouring me; but I could not help thinking [that] if they wished to do so they must 
make haste about it, or they would find only the miserable remnants left by thousands 
of insects who considered me fair ртеу.... |р. 361] The river Ninda runs through a 
plain slightly rising to the eastward, and which I was assured extends southward 
all the way to the junction of the Cuando and Zambesi. Up to the point where I was 
encamped the forest descended thickly to the very brink of the river ; but from that spot 
onwards there are merely groups of trees, scattered here and there over the enormous 
plain." | 
This part of the world is included in the eighth botanical region of Grisebach (* Die 
Vegetation der Erde, 1872), which he designates Tropical Africa and Natal; and it 
would properly be considered to belong to the south-central district of Tropical Africa, 
са 
