November 5, 1891 



NA TURE 



Equatorial Africa. Nothing, again, could be more ad- 

 mirable than the collections made by Brigade-Surgeon 

 Aitchison when attached to the Kuram Field Force 

 under Sir Fredericlc Roberts in Afghanistan. And the 

 Government of India has now arranged— and it is an 

 indication of the sympathy for science which animates 

 its members — that, as part of the organization of the 

 Botanical Survey of India, a botanist shall for the future 

 be attached to all frontier expeditions. 



Major Jephson, who accompanied Mr. Stanley, seems, 

 however, to have had his eyes about him. A corre- 

 spondent has sent me a copy of the October number 

 of the Mayflower, a small monthly horticultural perio- 

 dical published in New York, which contains (pp. 155, 

 1 56; a short paper by him on the " Plants of the 

 1 ark African Wilderness." This seems to me worth 

 putting on record in the pages of Nature, where it will 

 be at least more accessible for future reference. At my 

 request, Mr. Baker, the Keeper of the Kew Herbarium, 

 has had the paper annotated with such critical comments 

 as were possible. 



To Major Jephson's paper Mr. Stanley has prefixed a 

 brief introduction, which adds nothing of importance. 

 He remarks : — 



" In this branch of science I fancy we were all but 

 amateurs, and considering what very little time any of us 

 could devote from the engrossing business of marching, 

 and seeking for food to sustain life, Mr. Jephson shows 

 what might have been done by him had circumstances 

 been more favourable." 



This is, however, erring a little on the side of modesty. 

 As I have already shown, amateurs can do very useful 

 work without much difficulty, if they are content to do 

 only a little, but to do that little carefully. Some further 

 observations are open to more serious criticism : — 



"Africa is yet too young and too crude for the scientific 

 botanist. We have only toeen pioneers to stake the high- 

 way to make ready for those who shall come after us. 

 When the rails have been laid in pairs of iron lines across 

 the swamp and desert, and the engined boat cleaves the 

 red bosoms of the great rivers, and furrows the dead green 

 face of the fresh-water seas, then the tender-nurtured 

 botanist, conveyed from point to point without danger to 

 his valuable life, may be trusted, wiih his enthusiasm 

 and devotion, to bring to us results worthy of science and 

 the age. Of those who have given us an insight into the 

 botanic treasures of the African world, Schivernfuth {sic) 

 is by far the best, but he has also laboured under such dis- 

 advantages and discomforts that he was not able to do 

 for Equatorial Africa a tenth part of what Bates did for 

 the Amazon." 



One cannot but wonder a little at the ignorance of the 

 literature of African travel which this paragraph displays. 

 Men like Grant, Speke, Kirk, Welwitsch, Mann, Vogel, 

 Barter, and Thomson, to mention only a few of those to 

 whom we owe our knowledge of the African flora, would 

 have thought it comical to be described as "tender- 

 nurtured '■ botanists. The work of Schweinfurth was ad- 

 mirable ; yet no one would, 1 think, be more surprised 

 than that distinguished naturalist, Mr. Bates, to learn 

 that the botanical collections which he never even pro- 

 fessed to make, were ten limes better. 



Royal Gardens, Kew. 



W. T. Thiselton'-Dver. 



'• It is diflficult to give an accurate idea of the flowers 

 we saw in our march through Africa in a short magazine 

 article, but I here give a short sketch, mentioning some 

 ^^\v things which 1 think may be interesting to my readers. 



"The great forest of Central Africa through which we 

 passed is not so rich in variety of flowers and orchids as 

 the forests of Mexico and Brazil, or even the jungles of 

 India and Ceylon. It is chiefly rich in flowering vines, 



NO. T T49. VOL. 45] 



j trees, lilies,^ and Begonias. There is, however, a great 



wealth of different kinds of ferns, such as I have often 



seen cultivated in hot-houses in England. In many 



places the damp ground was covered by a thick growth 



I of filmy ferns and Lycopodium of the most beautiful 



description. 

 I " Here is a short extract from my journal, which will 

 I give some idea of the every-day sights we saw on the 

 I banks of the Lower Congo, 1700 feet above the sea, and 

 250 miles distant from it : — 



" ' At the bottom of a piece of swampy ground I came 

 to a small stream, on the banks of which were growing 

 Osmunda regalis,- or Royal fern. It was slightly 

 stunted in growth, being not more than 2 feet in height. 

 It is the first I ever have yet seen in the tropics. Close 

 by the stream was growing a group of beautiful ground 

 orchids,-* in form like a Hyacinthus candicans. There 

 were clusters of great pink flowers with yellow centres ; 

 the whole had a very gorgeous effect. Here, also, was a 

 profusion of Lycopodium.* It is of a kind I have not yet 

 seen ; it creeps up and over everything in great blue- 

 green masses ; its long tendrils creep up the tree trunks 

 like ivy, to a height, in some cases, of 4 feet. There 

 were quantities, also, of the ribbon fern, exactly like 

 the Davallia pentaphylla^' which has been introduced 

 into English hot-houses from the Malayan Archipelago 

 What would not florists at home have given for an acre 

 of this ground .^' 



" In the forest there were two kinds of lilies which were 

 common. One, which grew in swampy ground, was in 

 I form like an Amaryllis." It was white, with a deep crim- 

 son centre, and had a delicious but heavy scent. The 

 other was a lily,'' which grew everywhere through the 

 whole length of the forest. It was of a brilliant scarlet 

 colour, and was formed of several hundreds of small 

 I flowers, forming a round ball like a huge Guelder rose, 

 ( four inches in diameter. It was of such a brilliant scarlet 

 ' that it looked almost metallic, growing in the darkest re- 

 cesses of the forest One of the commonest and most 

 striking of all the ferns we saw was the Platyceritan aid- 

 j corned It is an extremely interesting fern, one of a 

 \ singular genus of epiphytal plants, growing on the 

 branches of trees. Our Zanzibaris called it 'elephant 

 ear,' from its curious shape. There was another of the 

 same family, Platycerium Stemtnaria, which we found 

 j growing upon rocks in the open country. Both these 

 ' ferns grew at altitudes from 1000 to 5000 feet. Tree- 

 ferns '-• of the ordinary kind we found growing in all the 

 gullies and streams on the slopes of the mountains above 

 the Albert Nyanza. The altitude was from 5000 to 6000 

 feet above the level of the sea, and I noticed especially 

 that the flora here was remarkably like that in the Central 

 Province of Ceylon, which is an altitude of 2500 to 4000 

 feet above the sea. 



" By far the most common plant which we saw in the 

 jungle was the Amomum, or wild cardamom.^'' It was 

 almost precisely the same in form as the cardamom 

 which is cultivated in Ceylon. It grew almost through- 

 out the whole of Central Africa. It has a large purple 

 flower, which grows in clusters on the ground at the root 

 of the plant, and from it a bright scarlet fruit forms, of a 

 pear shape, and about the size of a small fig. It is 

 divided into four quarters, and contains some white, 

 fleshy pulp, very juicy and acid. This pulp is full of 



1 Oinum. 



2 Osmunda regalis is cosmopolitan, but in tropical zone is high up only. 



3 Mr. Rolfe cannot suggest anything better than Lissochilus. 



4 Selaeinella scandens, no doubt. 



5 "Ribbon fern" would suggest Ophiogloisum pendulum or Vittaria, 

 but they are not like Davallia pentaphylla. 



6 Crinum zeylankuvi. 7 Brunsfvigia toxicaria. 



s Platycerium akicorne is not African, but P. Stemmaria is widely spread. 



9 No doubt Cyathea Thomsoni, Baker, which is very near C. Dregei of 

 the Cape. 



'° There are a large number of Amomums in West Tropical .Africa. The 

 fruits are 3- not 4-celled. See ..4. Daniellii, &c., in Oliver and Hanbiiry's 

 paper in Journ. linn. Soc , vii. 109.' 



