Begonia,] lxiv. begoniace^. 407 



Nov. 1856. No. 874. An annual erect herb, 2 ft. high ; branches 

 erect-spreading ; fruits nodding, one wing produced to a considerable 

 length like a beak. In rocky, half-shady places at the sides of a 

 stream in Barrancos da Pedra Songuc within the fortress ; ripe fr. 

 (also a young plant) Nov. ISot). No. 874i. 



LXV. CACTACEiE. 



Previously to Welwitsch's Angolan journey, the occurrence of 

 any member of this family in the Old World had been denied ; 

 " America is the exclusive station of the order, no species appearing 

 to be native of any other part of the world" (Lindl. Veg. Kingd., 

 edit. 3, p. 747 (1853)). It was therefore with much surprise and 

 satisfaction that Welwitsch, in the primaeval forests of Sobato 

 Quilombo-Quiacatubia in Golungo Alto, met with specimens of 

 a Hariota, which were suspended in long spikes, covered with thin 

 white berries, on the mossy branches of species of Kdwardia and 

 Adansonia ; a variety was also found hanging down from the 

 most elevated rocks of the fortress of Pungo Andongo, where it 

 grew abundantly in company with species of Sarcostemma and 

 low Stapeliese. Thus an important problem in phytogeography 

 was conclusively solved ; the genus had, however, been previously 

 reported from extra-tropical South Africa. 



The extensive rocky and dry declivities about Pungo Andongo, 

 little susceptible of any other cultivation, would supply a ground 

 particularly well adapted for attempting on a large scale the 

 planting of Opuntia or JVopcdea coccinellifera Salm-Dyck, which 

 would doubtless thi*ive there and furnish a new and valuable 

 article of commerce for that country. See Welwitsch, Apont. 

 p. 556, n. 131, and Sert. Angol., p. 35. 



1. HARIOTA Adans. Fam. PI. ii. p. 243 (1763). Rhipsalis 

 Gaertn. (1788); Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 850. 



1, H. parasitica O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. i. p. 262 (1891). 



Cactus pca'asiticus L. Syst. Nat. (ii.), edit. 10, p. 1054 (1759). 

 Rhipsalis Cassutkt Gaertn. Fruct. i. p. 137, t. 28, f. 1 (1788) ; Oliv. 

 Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 581 {Cassytha). R. lethiopica Wehv. in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. iii. p. 152 (1859). 



Golungo Alto. — A parasitical shrub, 4 to 8 ft. long or more, with 

 glaucous-green stem and branches hanging down a long distance and 

 growing on the mossy branches of Edwardia lurida and Adansonia 

 digitula. In very elevated primitive forests in Sobato Quilombo- 

 Quiacatubia, abundant : scarcely ripe fr. Feb. 1855 ; without either fl. 

 or fr. July 1856. The branches throw out adventitious roots from 

 the nodes. No. 876. A fleshy little shrub, with nodding green-reddish 

 branches, decked with crowded fascicles of tawny setose hairs. Young 

 specimens, parasites on the mossy branches of FAwardia lurida Raf., 

 at the same locality as the last No. : without fl. or fr. Feb. 1855. 

 No. 877. Coll. Cakp. 620 and &20l>. 



Pungo Andongo.- — A pendulous evergreen shrub, 4 to 9 ft. long and 

 more, very much branched ; stems scarcely as thick as the little finger, 



