129 
ANGOLAN SCITAMINE2. 
By H. N. Riotey, M.A., F.L.S. 
Tue number of Scitamineous plants known from pa ogres ae 
is small in comparison with that of Malaya or South A 
This is due in part to the fact that the cups grass plains ene ee 
fires are quite unsuited for the grow of these plants. Over a 
introduced plants, such as turmeric and ginger. In Madagascar, 
besides these genera, Hed) ji id Myrosma are ioe 
Western Africa the damp forests and river- 8 produce many 
species, and doubtless ‘nba will be found ina 3 the country is more 
clearly investigated. While the affinities of the eastern species are 
almost always spehyy those of the western regions have a con- 
siderable mixture of American forms, so that we may say that the 
Asiatic and American genera meet in West Africa. Kempferia, 
Curcuma, Amomum, Clinogyne, and Phryniwm are all otherwise 
—— genera. Renealmia, Thalia, and Calathea are typical American 
: at 
ge ) 
Bey oes, both found in Madagascar, but not at present in Tropical 
Africa. The distribution of these plants agrees — well with that 
of the Orchideew, Cyperacea, and some other orders, in all of which 
there is evidence of the invasion of Africa and its eastern islands 
by an Indo-Malayan flora, some part of aR never succeeded in 
reaching the mainland, and a former land-connection with South 
America, probably of earlier date, outliers from the flora of which 
still rem ain in the interior of Madagascar. These American forms 
majority of gamle are South American me West Indian, there are 
widel 
interesting to soit that the West African forms eke rather 
those of South —, gon of Asia. The African Musacee include 
usa sapientum and M. paradisiaca, probably but not certainly 
both introduced, from Asia ; besides these, there are Musa 
in the south the Strelitzias, and in Madagascar a single species of 
oper the only other species of the latter genus being a native 
of Guian 
ZINGIBERACEE ) 
Zingiber officinalis L. is cultivated in some localities in Golange 
Alto, No. : 
a or Borany.—Vow. 25. [May, 1887.] — 
