476 APPENDIX. No. V. 



includes several species which also belong to Egypt, as Nymphaea Lotiii^, 

 Cyperus Papyrus and articulatus, Splienoclea zeylanica, Glinus lotoides, 

 Ethulia conyzoides, and Graiigea maderaspatana. 



Of the piwny remarkable genera and orders characterising the vegetation of 

 South Africa, no traces are to be found in the herbarium from Congo. This 

 fact is the more worthy of notice, because even in Abyssinia a few remains, if 

 I may so speak, of these chai-acteristic tribes, have been met with ; as the 

 Protea abyssinka,* observed by Bruce, and Pelargonium abyssinicum and 

 Geisorrhiza abyss'mica t found by Mr. Salt. 



Between tlie plants collected by Professor Smith in the island oi St. Jago 

 and those of the Congo herbarium, there is very little affinity ; great part of 

 the ordM-s and genera being different, and not more than three species, of 

 which Cassia occidentalis is one, being common to both. To judge from this 

 collection of St. Jago, it would seem that the vegetation of the Cape Verd 

 Islands is of a character intermediate between that of tlie adjoining continent 

 and of the Canai'y Islands, of which the Flora has, of course, still less connection 

 witli that of Congo. 



It might perhaps have been expected that the examination of the vicinity of 

 the Congo would have thrown some light on the origin, if I may so ex^jress 

 myself, of the Flora of St. Helena. This, however, has not proved to be the 

 case ; for neither has a single indigenous species, nor have any of the principal 

 genera, characterising the vegetation of that Island, been found either on the 

 banks of the Congo, or on any other part of this coast of Africa. 



There appears to be some affinity between the vegetation of tiie banks of 

 the Congo and that of Madagascar and the Ides of France and Bourbon. 

 This affinity, however, consists more in a certain degree of resemblance in 

 several natural families and extensive or remarkable genera, than in identity 

 of species, of which there seems to be very few in common. 



The Flora of Congo may be compared with those of equinoctial countries 

 still more remote. 



With that of India, it agrees not only in the proportions of many of its 

 principal families, or in what may be termed tlie equinoctial relation, but also, 

 to a certain degree, in the more extensive genera of which several of these 



* Gaguedi Brucc's Travels 5, p. 52. 



f Salt's Travels in Abyssinia, append, p. Ixiii. and Ixv. 



