ON AFRICAN PLANTS COLLEOTBD Et MAJOA BEBPA PINTO. 13 



On Central-African Plants collected by Major Serpa Pinto. 

 By Prof. Count Ficalho and "W. P. Hiben, M.A., F.L.S. 



[Abstract, read June 16, 1881.] 



The specimens herein discussed were collected by Major Serpa 

 Pinto, during the month of August 1878, along the upper course of 

 the river Ninda, an affluent of the Zambesi, on the west side of 

 the high plateau. As regards the climate of this locality, the 

 temperature is described as variable, the weather as very dry 

 during seven or eight months of the year, and very wet during 

 two or three months. The nature of the soil is metamorphic 

 argillaceous schist; the latitude is 14° 46' S., the longitude 

 20° 56' E., and the elevation 1143 metres above the ocean. 



The present little collection consists of seventy-two numbers, 

 comprising sixty-five species in thirty-nine genera ; more than 

 a quarter of these species are new or not previously described 

 and published, and at least one new genus appears amongst 

 them. Some of the specimens are imperfect and have been diffi- 

 cult of final determination, especially tlio grasses and sedges ; the 

 greater part have had their approximate position ascertained ; 

 five specimens are hopelessly defective, and accordingly have 

 been excluded from the examination. 



As in the case of the previously known species, the affinities of 

 many of those of the present collection are not only with the flora 

 of Huilla, in South Angola, but also, in several instances, with 

 that of extratropical South Africa ; only a few of the species are 

 widely distributed in the tropics of this and other continents. 



This paper, with illustrations, will appear in full in the Society's 

 ' Transactions.' 



LINN. JOtJEN.— botany, VOL. XIX. 



