153 BOTANY OF CONGO. 



III. In the third part of my subject I am to compare 

 the vegetation of the line of the river Congo vpith that of 

 other equinoctial countries, and with the various parts of 

 the continent of Africa and its adjoining Islands. 



The first comparison to be made is obviously with the 

 other parts of the West coast of equinoctial Africa. 



The most important materials from this coast to which I 

 have had access are contained in the herbarium of Sir 

 Josepli Banks, and consist chiefly of the collections of 

 Smeathman from Sierra Leone, of Brass from Cape Coast 

 (Cabo Corso), and the greater part of the much more 

 numerous discoveries of Professor Afzehus already referred 

 to. Besides these, there are a few less extensive collections 

 in the same herbarium, especially one from the banks of 

 the Gambia, made by Mr. Park in returning from his first 

 journey into the interior ; and a few remarkable species 

 brought from Suconda and other points in the vicinity of 

 Cape Coast, by Mr. Hove. The published plants from the 

 west coast of Africa are to be found in the splendid and 

 interesting Flore d'Oware et Benin of the Baron de Beau- 

 vois ; in the earlier volumes of the Botanical Dictionary of 

 the Encyclopedic Methodique by M. Lamarck, chiefly from 

 Sierra Leone and Senegal; in the different volumes of 

 Willdenow's Species Plantarum from Isert; in Vahl's 

 Eniimeratio Plantarum from Thonning; a few from Senegal 

 in the Genera Plantarum of M. de Jussieu ; and from 

 Sierra Leone in a memoir on certain genera of Rubiacese 

 by M. de Candolle^ in the Ann ales du Museum d'liistoire 

 Naturelle. Many remarkable plants are also mentioned in 

 Adanson's Account of Senegal, and in Isert's Travels in 

 Guinea. 



On comparing Professor Smith's herbarium with these 

 materials, it appears that from the river Senegal in about 

 16° N. lat. to the Congo, which is in upwards of 6° S. lat., 

 there is a remarkable uniformity in the vegetation, not only 

 as to the principal natural orders and genera, but even to a 

 considerable extent in the species of which it consists. 

 Upwards of one third part of the plants in the collection 

 from Congo had been previously observed on other parts 



