306 Linnaan Society : — 



lost a moment, but my whole time has been employed in excursions ; 

 so that I have already become acquainted with and plundered up- 

 wards of forty miles of coast, from the Guizembo River (three miles 

 N. of Ambriz) to near the mouth of the mighty Cuanza (about 9° 30' 

 S. Lat.), and possess the materials for a Flora of Loanda, of five to 

 six * miles in circumference, in well-preserved specimens. 



The total number of plants which I have hitherto collected, as 

 well on the islands as in Sierra Leone and Angola, may amount to 

 about 800 species, but increases daily as the rainy season approaches ; 

 all those hitherto collected having been obtained in the dry (and 

 therefore unfavourable) season. March and April are here in An- 

 gola the rainy months ; and the period of the highest and most 

 luxuriant development of vegetation falls in the months of May and 

 June, so that I have good right to hope that my collection may very 

 shortly be increased to, perhaps, more than double its present amount, 

 since the annual species, as a matter of course, make their appearance 

 only in the rainy season. 



What especially surprises me here, with respect to the geogra- 

 phical distribution of certain genera, is the occurrence of three or 

 four Aloes, of a Stapelia (Heurnia), and several other Cape genera. 

 Of Euphorbia I have already found near Loanda a gigantic species, 

 with a stem 2^ feet in diameter and upwards of 30 feet high, form- 

 ing woods, as the Pinus sylvestris does with us ! This species, which 

 is readily discernible even from ship-board, is not noticed in the 

 ' Flora Nigritiana.' 



In the lakes of the interior, distant about one to three German 

 (four to twelve English) miles from the coast, 1 have found almost 

 everywhere magnificent Nymphseas (N. c(£rulea, micrantha, den- 

 tata, &c.) and Pistia \ and in addition, our Typha angustifolia and 

 Scirpus maritimus. 



Of trees, there occur in the dry coast-flora only Adansonia, Ster- 

 culia, n. sp., an Afzelia, Eriodendron anfractuosum, and a Bauhinia, 

 with three species of Palm : on the rivers, however, the tree vege- 

 tation becomes more dense, and more abundant in species ; the list 

 being then augmented by Avicennia africana, Laguncularia racemosa, 

 and Rhizophora Mangle ; of which, the Laguncularia always remains 

 a shrub, but the other two sometimes appear as great trees. A Cap' 

 paridea too, the beautiful Meerua angolensis, DeC, appears as a tree, 

 even in the neighbourhood of Loanda, but extremely seldom ; usually 

 only as a shrub 5-6 feet high. Among my collections several species 

 of Strychnos, and another Loganiacea, likewise occur, most of which 

 may probably prove to be new species. In the woods of Euphorbia 

 {Candelabra, n. sp.) is found a wonderfully beautiful terrestrial 

 Orchidea, with a scape 4-5 feet high, which ends in a spike of a foot 

 long with large yellow flowers. A truly magnificent Crinum (Brous- 

 sonetii}) luxuriates in boggy places ; and on hilly slopes, the Adan- 

 sonia digitata is nearly covered by a glaucous-leaved Loranthus with 

 deep red flowers. 



Jt is much to be regretted that excursions in this country are 



* Q'' German miles = 4i English. 



