OF WEST EQUINOCTIAL AFRICA. 153 



which comprises the districts of Grolungo Alto and Cazengo, 

 together with Dembos, and partly also Ambaca, I have reported 

 cursorily in my letter of the 12th September, 1857, and conse- 

 quently I have only to tell you something about the third and 

 most interesting region, Pungo Andongo (more correctly " Pungo 

 ia N'dongo ") forms the centre of this region, which, as you will 

 quickly perceive from the little I am going to tell about it, forms 

 an African district of vegetation of its own, which I shall call the 

 kingdom of the Equinoctial African highlands. About fifteen to 

 twenty geographical miles from Golungo Alto towards the east, 

 the majestic dark shady woods of this district, which are so diffi- 

 cult to penetrate on account of the immense climbers, disappear ; 

 the forests in general become more rare and less dense, and are 

 mostly formed by low trees, among which the most common is a 

 new genus of AraliacecB, with a most curious habit. The ground 

 everywhere is now less shaded, on which account a greater number 

 of smaller kinds of plants occur, especially ConvolvulacecB and 

 splendid AcantJiacece. New forms, never seen in the primeval 

 forests of the second region, now make their appearance, among 

 which are, especially, Amorphojphalltos, a magnificent climbing 

 BauJiinia, small pretty Compositce, the Ancylanthus ruhiginosus, 

 Desf., and an extremely pretty fruticose Bubiacea, which at 

 first sight looks exactly like an Azalea ! ! Where the ground 

 changes to mountains or higher hills, there occur Sterculiea foliis 

 glaucis, NathusiaioYiiB indivisis (which have not appeared before), 

 and a considerable number of Composites, all more or less related 

 to Sonchtis, as well as a few species of Helichrysum, which remind 

 you already of the Cape flora. There now become mixed with 

 the forest trees Buttneriacecd with bunches of large white 

 flovrers ; pretty Bubiacece and TiliacecB (among others an herba- 

 ceous Grewia) are more and more frequent ; and a kind of Thesium 

 {Santalacece) tells again of the Cape flora: but, far surpassing 

 all other herbaceous plants, in splendour, size, and richness of 

 blossoms, appears prominently in all the less dense places of the 

 wood a Sesamum, which, as I have collected many seeds of it, 

 will soon become an ornament of European gardens. As we 

 approach the rocky scenery of the prsesidia of Pungo Andongo, 

 the forests of Araliacece occur alternately with forests of Btero- 

 carpus ; and all at once quite a new world of plants, a new geo- 

 graphical kingdom, starts before the eye. The ground is every- 

 where rocky, grown over with short grasses and Cyperacece ; but in 

 the many narrow ravines the most luxuriant forest-vegetation 



