156 ON THE VEGETATION OF WEST EQUINOCTIAL AFEICA. 



oi AnthericacecBj Drosera^ Disa, Cor chorus j and Triumfetta. I have 

 also found in the marshes quite a new and highly interesting 

 Monocotyledonous family represented by five species, which in its 

 characters somewhat resembles Centrolepidce. I am firmly con- 

 vinced that this new family will be received by all phytologists as 

 quite original, and will be considered as a contribution to the 

 filling up of the vacancies which exist to this day between the 

 true Cyperacecd and the Enantiohlastce. Not less variety is found 

 in the Cryptogamic Elora of Pungo Andongo, among which par- 

 ticularly the Fungi are remarkable. Polyporoidece, AgaricoidecBf 

 and SphcBriacecB are extremely numerous, in beautiful forms and 

 bright colours. I have observed about 300 species ; and of most 

 of them I have collected illustrative specimens, which now all lie 

 safely in my English Herbarium. Among the Algce are espe- 

 cially to be noticed many sorts of Scytonema, which here compose, 

 as the Sphagna do in Europe, the swampy ground for the so- 

 called peat plants {plantce turfosce), and in whose thickly-matted 

 tviY^ DrosercB, Utricularice, a kind oi Xgris, and many RepaticcB 

 and Musci usually take root. Of Musci there were in all about 

 eighty species, of Lichenes above a hundred ; of Mlices, on the 

 whole and including the insulares, nearly a hundred species, 

 among which are two Filices arhorece, two Flatyceria, two Ly- 

 godia, three Rymenophylla, one Marattia, one Gleichenia^ &c. 

 There are rarely met with more than six kinds of Lycopodia, for 

 the most part extremely pretty Selaginellce. I must also remark, 

 witli regard to the Algce, that two Rhodophycece, namely, two 

 HildenhranticG, are found in the brooks between Grolungo Alto 

 and Pungo Andongo, and indeed in such abundance, that certain 

 parts of the brooks assume a blood-colour or purple dye. 



The haste with which I have been compelled to compile this 

 letter will be in some degree an excuse for the confusion which 

 would necessarily follow in enumerating the different families, as 

 I have mentioned them only just as they presented themselves 

 one by one to my memory. However, I permit myself to express 

 the hope that this enumeration, although rather confused, will at 

 least be sufficient to give a general idea of the riches and variety 

 of the flora of the interior of Africa. As soon as I have put my 

 herbarium in better order, and have arranged, in a preliminary way, 

 those plants which can only be determined in Europe, I intend to 

 give a general summary of all the plants which I have observed 

 on the continent and the adjacent islands, together with indica- 

 tions relative to their propagation and distribution. As regards 



