150 BOTANY OF CONGO. 



only two species have hitherto been pubhshed as belonging 

 to the west coast : the first, supposed to be Piper Cnheha, 

 and certainly very nearly related to it, is noticed by Chisius ■} 

 the second is imperfectly described by Adanson in his 

 account of Senegal A third species of Piper, however, 

 occurs in Sir Joseph Banks's herbarium, from Sierra Leone : 

 and we know tliat at least one species of this genus and 

 several of Pepcromia, exist at the Cape of Good Hope. 



The extensive genus Befjonia, which it is perhaps expe- 

 dient to divide, may be considered as forming a natural 

 order, whose place, however, among the Dicotyledonous 

 families, is not satisfactorily determined. Of BegoniacecB^ 

 no species has yet been observed on the continent of Africa, 

 though several have been found in Madagascar and tlie 

 Isles of France and Bourbon, and one in the Island of 

 Johanna. 



No genus of Laurince, is known to exist in any part of 

 the continent of Africa, except the paradoxical Cassytha, of 

 which the only species in the Congo collection can hardly 

 be distino'uished from that of the West Indies, or from C. 

 pubescens of New Holland. The absence of Laurinoe on 

 the continent of Africa is more remarkable, as several species 

 of Laurus have been found both in TencriiFe and Madeira, 

 and certain other genera belonging to this family exist in 

 jMadagascar and in the Isles of Prance and Bourbon. 



Fassijlorece. A few remarkable plants of this order have 

 been observed on the different parts of the west coast of 

 Africa, especially ]\Iodecca of the Hortus Malabaricus and 

 Smeatlnnania, an nnpubhshed genus already mentioned in 

 treating of Homahnse. 



MyrsinecB. No species of any division of this order, has 

 been met with in equinoctial Africa, though several of the 

 465] first section, or ?\Iyrsineoe, properly so called, exist both 

 at the Cape of Good Hope and in the Canary Islands.^ 



^ Piper ex Guinea, Clus. exot. p. 184, who considers it as not different from 

 the Piper caudatum, figured on the same page, and which is no doubt Piper 

 Cubeba of the Malavan Archipehigo. " Bonplancl Malmais, 151. 



3 To the first section belong Mi/rslne, Arcl'ma, and Bladhia. The second, 

 including Emhelia, and perhaps also Olhera of Thunberg, differs from the first 

 nierclv in its corolla being polypctalous. /Egkeras may bo considered as 



