ON CENTRAL-AFRICAN PLANTS. 13 
tree, the arrangement of its leaves, the flowers in clusters, and, above all, my ignorance of 
botany induced me to speak of it in my diary as an Acacia..... This tree, whose 
delicious flowers many a lady in Europe would have rejoiced to possess, I never met with 
before reaching this particular spot, and looked for it in vain as I approached the river 
Ninda.” 
It appears, however, as before mentioned, that the tree was met with before the river 
Ninda was left. The figure given in the book shows а zigzag branchlet, bearing alternate 
abruptly pinnate and apparently stipulate leaves with from 7 to 10 pairs of mostly 
opposite elliptical and sessile leaflets; the flower (which is enlarged in the figure) 
possesses 3 stamens, which have slender filiform filaments, bearing oval or oblong versatile 
anthers, also a slender and filiform style, not quite as long as the filaments, with a 
capitate stigma аб the apex. Тһе flowers are said to form bunches З centimetres long by 
15 millimetres in diameter; the petals are described as 2in number and white in colour, 
and the ovary and stamens as brown. 
Such being all the information at our disposal with regard to the “ Ойсо,” and there 
being no specimen in the collection, it would be rash to speak with any confidence as to 
the genus to which it belongs. It may, however, be suggested that possibly it may, when 
better known, eventually prove to belong to the genus Cryptosepalum, Benth., of Ceesal- 
piniez; and if so, it would be an undescribed species : the specific name fragrantissimum 
would be suitable. If this view is correct, the organs which have been termed petals are 
really bracteoles. 
It must be borne in mind that this branch of the Portuguese expedition to the interior 
of South Central Africa, which was started in the year 1877, was mainly developed as a 
geographical exploration, and that its leader, Major Serpa Pinto, did not lay claim to 
botanical knowledge; moreover, from causes which have been already hinted at, and 
which are more circumstantially related in his book of travels, it would have been im- 
practicable for him to bring home any considerable herbarium from the interior of the 
country. 
On three separate occasions even this small collection fell into imminent danger of 
loss or total destruction. First, at Lialui, the capital city of the kingdom of the Baróze, in 
the Upper Zambesi, close to the 15th parallel of south latitude, on the night of September 
6th, 1878, the camp was set on fire by the treachery of native incendiaries, and it was 
only with great difficulty that the trunks containing the scientific instruments, the papers, 
and the gunpowder were got out and saved from the general conflagration. Secondly, 
near the village of Catongo, on September 10th, 1878, the carriers deserted in the 
darkness of night, and stole nearly all the property. Thirdly, on April 19th, 1879, in 
transhipping in rough weather off Durban the baggage from a little harbour-steamer to 
the ocean-steamer, some of the baggage fell and got crushed between the two vessels ; a 
portion of the contents went to the bottom of the sea, and was irretrievably lost. 
About a score (being a third part of the number of species set out in the following 
enumeration) appear to be new or previously undescribed species. Of these plants two 
are represented in the collection by specimens too imperfect to enable us to speak with 
complete certainty as to their genus; three others belong to species of grasses which 
