72 
THE WELWITSCHIA. MIRABILIS. 
[Nature and Art, August 1, 18G6. 
naturalist, then on a botanical mission at St. Paul’s, 
Loando, on account of the Portuguese Government. 
The account was soon published, and excited, as 
may be supposed, an interest among the most 
eminent European botanists which has never been 
exceeded, if equalled, since the discovery of the 
Rafflesia. 
“Nor did it want an historian to describe fully 
its character and affinities, and external and internal 
organization, in the work above quoted. 
“ Having, however, actually received living plants 
at Kew (though in a dying condition), besides 
copious dried specimens, through the kindness of 
two gentlemen still residing in South-Western 
Africa — Joachim Monteiro, Esq., of Loando, and 
C. J. Andersson, Esq., of Damara Land, — we are 
justified in giving it a brief notice in the Botanical 
Magazine, and thus extending a knowledge of it 
among many who have not the opportunity of con- 
sulting the Linnean Society’s ‘ Transactions.’ As 
to the cultivation of the plant in our stoves, we 
despair of it altogether, as much as we do of rearing 
the Rafflesia Arnoldii. Climate, soil, and native 
locality are all against success. Yet trials should, 
and no doubt will, be made to raise it from seed 
when opportunity may offer. 
“Dr. Welwitsch found the plant, in 1860, in- 
habiting the elevated plateaxi near Cape Negro, 
Western tropical Africa, in lat. 15° 40' S. ; and 
Mr. Thomas Baines, the able artist in Gregory’s 
exploring expedition across North Australia — and 
who accompanied Dr. Livingstone on the Zambesi 
mission — while travelling, the following year, in 
the Damara country, between 22° and 23° S. and 
five hundred miles south of Cape Negro, was so 
struck with its appearance that he made coloured 
drawings of it and others, and sent them to me, 
with some cones — but these being more than a year 
en route, not dried, and packed with the succulent 
leaves of a, gigantic aloe, were much decayed. 
“ Happily the cones contained ripe seeds, which, 
by hardening in alcohol, enabled Dr. Hooker to 
satisfy himself of their great similarity in develop- 
ment and structure with those of Cycadece and 
Gnetacece. The native name Tumbo* was commu- 
nicated both by Dr. Welwitsch and Mr. Baines; 
but as the same name is given to the gigantic aloe 
of the country, it is a generic rather than a specific 
name among the natives, for to the branch of cones 
Mr. Baines had written, ‘ Called by the Hottentots 
Gliories, and by the Damaras Nyanlca Hykamkopl 
As we were now in possession of specimens, how- 
ever imperfect, of this wonderful plant, from Mr. 
Baines, and very anxious that its discovery should 
be announced, Dr. Hooker wrote to Dr. Welwitsch, 
reminding him of a request he had made that a full 
account of his discovery should appear in the 
Linnean ‘ Transactions,’ and urging him either to 
make the plant known himself to the scientific 
world, or to send his specimens here for publication, 
proposing at the same time that it should be called 
Welwitsch ia mira b ilis. 
* Otjitumbo, a stump. 
“ Mr. Monteiro also sent us plants collected at 
Mossamedes, or Little Fish Bay, in 1862. These 
were gathered in a journey of thirty miles from the 
coast, in ground of hard quartzose character, and 
generally near little ruts worn in the plain by 
running water in the rainy season. Several Portu- 
guese of Cape Negro assured him they had seen 
specimens measuring, as Dr. Welwitsch also said, 
six feet across the apex of the trunk, and even 
larger, and with the ribbon-like leaves two and 
even three bracas (fathoms) long.” 
The letter of Mr. C. J. Andersson, previously 
quoted, is then given, and the notice concludes with 
the following description : — 
“Descr. — hi this we shall confine ourselves to 
the more popular portion of Dr. Hooker’s, referring 
for the more scientific history to the Linnean 
‘ Transactions.’ 
“ It is a woody plant, said to attain a century in 
duration, with obconic trunk, about two feet long, 
of which a few inches only rise above the soil, pre- 
senting the appearance of a flat, two-lobed, depressed 
mass, sometimes, according to Dr. Welwitsch, 
attaining fourteen feet in circumference, and looking 
like a round table. When fully grown it is dark 
brown, hard, and cracked over the whole surface 
much like the burnt crust of a loaf of bread. The 
lower portion forms a stout tap-root, buried in the 
soil, and branching downwards at the end. From 
deep grooves in the circumference of the depressed 
mass, two enormous leaves are given off, each six 
feet long (and probably often much more), one 
corresponding to each lobe of the trunk. These 
are quite flat, linear, very leathery, and split to 
the base into innumerable thongs, that lie curling 
upon the surface of the soil. 
“ Its discoverer describes these two leaves as 
being present from the very earliest condition of 
the plant, and assures me that they are in part 
developed from the two cotyledons of the seed, 
and are persistent, being replaced by no others. 
From the circumference of the tabular mass above, 
but close to the insertion of the leaves, spring stout 
dichotomously branched cymes, nearly a foot high, 
bearing small erect scarlet cones, which eventually 
become oblong, and attain the size of those of the 
common spruce fir. The scales of the cones are 
very closely imbricated, and contain, when young 
and still A r ery small, solitary flowers, which in 
some cones are hermaphrodite (structurally, but not 
functionally), and in others female. 
“ The hermaphrodite flower consists of a perianth 
of four pieces, six monadelplrous stamens, with 
trilocular globose anthers, surrounding a central 
ovule, the integument of which is produced into a 
styliform sigmoid tube, terminated by a discoid 
apex. The female flower consists of a solitary erect 
ovule , contained in a compressed utricular perianth. 
The mature cone is tetragonous, and contains a 
broadly-winged fruit in each scale. Every part of 
the plant exudes a transparent gum. Welwitschia 
is a dicotyledonous plant, belonging to the gyrnno- 
spermous group of that class, and having a very 
close affinity with both Ephedra and Gnetum, but 
