28o In the Heart of Africa 



233 new species and four new families of phanerogamous plants 

 were also found. Particular interest attaches to the collections 

 from the Rugege forest and from the volcanic region, which 

 fill up a considerable gap in our knowledge of African alpine 

 flora. A scientific treatise dealing with these collections has 

 already appeared in the proceedings of the Royal Prussian 

 Academy of Science, Berlin, for the year 1909, entitled: 

 "Die V egetationsverhdltnisse der zentralafrikanischen Seen-zone 

 vom Viktoria-See bis zu den Kiwu-V ulkanen. Bericht iiber die 

 botanischen Ergebnisse der Expedition des Herzogs Adolf 

 Friedrich zu Mecklenburg, 1907-1908." (J. Mildbraed.) The 

 most important result obtained, however, is the establishment of 

 the fact that a large number of botanical families and species 

 which had hitherto been believed to be limited exclusively to the 

 forests in the neighbourhood of the west coast, really reach as 

 far as to the region of the upper Ituri, almost to the foot of the 

 Ruwenzori chain, and that therefore the great African hylasa 

 forms one homogeneous botanical whole. 



Schubotz throws light on the zoological work done in a 

 preliminary report published by him in the proceedings of the 

 Berlin Society of Naturalists, year 1909, No. 7 (Vorldufiger 

 Bericht iiber die Reise Jind die zoologischen Ergebnisse der 

 deutschen Zentralafrika-Exfedition, 1907- 1908, von Hermann 

 Schubotz). The collection, which was transferred to the Berlin 

 Zoological Museum, comprised all sections of the animal king- 

 dom, and consisted numerically as follows: 834 mammals (hides, 

 skeletons, skulls, specimens in methylated spirits), 800 bird- 

 skins, 173 reptiles, 204 amphibious animals, 708 fish, 1,452 

 decapods, 686 molluscs, 7,603 insects and several hundreds of 

 smaller forms, I,i8r arachnidae, 167 myriopoda, 637 worms 

 (oligochasta, hirudinidas, nematoidea, cestoidea, and turbellaria), 

 40 glasses of plankton, 4 glasses of bryozoa, 27 spongicc, and 

 various swamp and moss specimens. The classification of this 

 material by learned experts, which unquestionably contains a 

 great number of new forms, especially among the lower animals, 

 will be a labour of some years. There are a considerable number 



