193 



<&rigtual &vttcles- 



ENUMERATIO ACANTHACEARUM HERBAEII 



WELWITSCHIANI ANGOLENSIS. 



Auctore S. Le M. Moore. 



(Tab. 211.) 



The examination at Kew of a parcel sent from the Escola 

 Polytecbnica of Lisbon, containing specimens collected by the late 



Welwitscb in Angola, soon convinced me that tbe Acanthacea 



- _ r » j the rule, Dr. Welwitscb having discovered 



a large number of new species and forms referable to this Order. 

 When I paid a visit to the British Museum for the purpose of 

 seeing the splendid set of his specimens there preserved, I was 

 seized with a desire to work up the collection. To this end I 

 applied to Mr. Carruthers, and as Mr. Hiern has been 

 entrusted with the task of publishing the discoveries of the great 

 collector, reference was also made to him. Both gentlemen were 

 good enough to allow me to do as I wished. The result is the 

 present paper. 



Since the publication of the eleventh volume of DeCandolle's 

 ' rrodromus,' containing Nees von Esenbeck's elaboration of 

 Acanthace®, the Order has but seldom been dealt with, so far, that is 

 to say, as relates to the flora of Africa. Indeed with the exception 

 of Count Solms' careful description of Schimper's herbarium, 

 the late Br. Anderson's enumeration of the African species in the 

 seventh volume of the Linnean Journal, and Klotzsch's work m 

 connection with Peters' ' Reise nach Mozambique,' there i^ 

 scarcely a work which contains any reference to the Order. This 

 18 all the more remarkable, not only because these plants are 

 naturally, from the great beauty of the flowers, usually very 

 attractive, but also because so many explorers, notably Dr. lurk, 

 trustav Mann, and the German traveller Hildebrandt, have 

 recently been very successful in the discovery of novelties. We 

 «, however, remember that the Cape Flora, so unfortunately 

 gopped by Dr. Harvey's death, did not reach Acanthacea, and that 

 professor Oliver's Flora of Tropical Africa is still a long way from 

 Je same Order. Though it labours under the drawback of insuffi- 

 cient description, Dr. Anderson's memoir is the most useful ol 

 a the published accounts. It was unfortunate that Mann s 

 collection arrived too late to be incorporated with it, or it would 

 'ave presented a somewhat different aspect. As an epitome ol 

 ^owledge at the time it was written, it is fairly satisfactory ; but 

 ^otzsch's memoir having a slight advantage of priority, correlation 

 the types described in the two works is urgently required. Ihe 

 as81nc atory method being simpler than that of Nees is certainly 



"• s - vol. 9. [July, lb80.j - c 



