98 
BOTANICAL CHARACTERS. 
species was made with difficulty ; many plants, especially 
in parasitical Orchidece, were not yet in flower. 
The shore is flat and sandy, and the drift is carried 
far inland. There are here no forests, only shrubs, 
intermingled with isolated high trees, the nature of which 
could not be determined, as they were without blossom 
or fruit. The African Bomhax appeared to be among 
them, and the same Spondias as at Sierra Leone. It 
was doubtful whether a considerable tree of this was 
identical with Myrohalanus. 
But the pride of these shores is the Elais. Clumps 
of a dozen or more of these graceful trees, exhibiting 
under different circumstances a modified appearance, 
give a great variety of aspect to the country. It is a 
Palm of moderate height, and forms, with various Figs, 
the chief mass of the woods. The underwood consists 
of shrubby Rubiacea;, with shining leaves, intermingled 
with Gloriosa superha, Cissi, Leguminosa; and Banis- 
teria as creepers, leaving hardly room for MelastorruB, 
and other low plants that peep through with their lovely 
blossoms. Nothing can be more beautiful than a clump 
of a few Oil Palms, with the remaining stumps of the 
lower leaves covered with the fresh verdure of parasitical 
Ferns and Orchidaceee. 
Of single plants may he mentioned Sarcocephalus, 
occurring frequently ; the same Phyllanthus as in 
Liberia, Schmidelia Africana, a genus of Apocy- 
neee, which seems new, Tahcrnce montana, remark- 
able on account of its double fruit, as large as a 
child’s head, the seeds nestling in the almost woody 
