APPENDIX. No. V. 457 



with fan-shaped fronds and an undivided caudex. It therefore more probably 

 belongs to Corj^lia than to Gaertner's Hyphsene, one species of which is the 

 Cucifera of Delile, the Doom of Upper Egypt ; the second, Hyphcene coriacea, 

 is a native of Melinda, and probably of Madagascar, and both are remarkable 

 in having the caudex dichotomous, or repeatedly divided. 



As the Palm on the banks of the Congo was seen in fruit only, it is not 

 difficult to account for Professor Smith's refemng it rather to Hyphsene than 

 to Corypha ; Ga?rtner having described the embryo of the latter as at the base 

 of the fruit, probably, however, from having inverted it, as he appears to have 

 done In Elasis. It is at least certain that in Corypha, Taliera • of the continent 

 of India, which is very nearly alhed to C. umbraculifera, the embryo is 

 situated at the apex as in Hyphsene. 



The journal also notices a species of Raphia, which is probably Raphia 

 vinifera of M. de Beauvois,-|- the Sag-us Pahna-pinus of Gasrtner. 



The collection contains fronds similar to those of Calamus secundtflorus of 

 M. de Beauvois,J which was also foimd at Sierra Leone by Professor Afzelius ; 

 and a male spadix very nearly resembling that of Elate sylvcstris of India. 



The Cocoa Nut was not observed in any part of the course of the river. 



Only five species of Palms appear therefore to have been seen on the banks 

 of the Congo. On the whole continent of Africa thirteen species, including 

 those from Congo, have been found; which belong to genera either confined to 

 this continent and its islands, or existing also in India, but none of wliich have 

 yet been observed in America, unless perhaps Elaeis, if Alfonsia oleifera of 

 Humboldt should prove to be a distinct species of that genus. 



CYPERACE^E. In the collection there are thirty-two species belonging 

 to this order, which forms therefore about one eighteenth of the Phajnogamous 

 plants. This is very different from what has been considered its equinoctial 

 proportion, but is intermediate to that of the northern part of New Holland, 

 where, from my own materials, it seems to be as 1:14; and of India, in which 

 according to Dr. Roxburgh's Flora it is about 1:25. 



In other intratropical countries the proportion may be still smaller ; but I 



* Roxb. Coromand. 3, tafjb. 255 el 256. + F/ore d'Oware l,p. To, tabb. H, ib, el 46. 

 + Op. citat. 1 , p. 15, labb. 9 e/ 10. 



3N 



