THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURI8T 
[Janvary 1, 1892. 
Soa 
J— — I^,— g r..— »- . i- 
One cannot but wonder n little at the ignorance of the 
literature of African travel which thia paragraph dia- 
plays. Men like Qrant, Speke, Kirk, Welwitaoh, Mann, 
Vogel, Barter and Thomaon toiuention OLly a few of 
those to whom we owe our knowledge of the African 
flora, would have thought it ixmical to be deacril.ed at, 
“ teuder-nurtured ” botanists. The work of Sohwein- 
furth waa admirable ; yet no one would, I think, be 
more aurprieed than that distinguished nniuraliat, 
Mr. Bates, to learn that the botanioal colltotioua 
which he never even proleaaad to make, were ton times 
better. 
W. T. THUKLTON-DYEn, 
Boyal Qardena, Kew. 
“ It is difllcu'.t to give an accurate idea of the floweea 
we saw in our march through Africa in a short miga- 
zine article, but 1 hero give a abort eketch, montioning 
come few Ibiuga which I think may be lutereating to 
my reader. 
'* The groat forest of Central Africa throogh which 
wo passed ie not so rich in variety of flowers and orebidH 
aa the foreata of Mexico and Brazil, or even the jaoglea 
of India and Ceylon. It ia chiefly rioh in flowering 
vines, treea, lilies(a) and Bigoiiias. There is, however, 
a great wealth of different kinda of ferns, auobaa I have 
often seen onitivated in hot-bouaca iuKngland. In many 
placea the damp ground waa covered by a thick growth 
of filmy feme and Lycopodium of the moat beautiful 
description. 
“ Here is a short extract from my journal which will 
give some idea of the everyday-sighta wo aaw on the 
banka of the Lower Congo, 1,700 feet above the aea and 
2110 miles distant from it ; — 
“ 'At the bottom of a piece of swampy ground I came 
to a smalt atresm, on the banka of which were growing 
Otmunda regalu{b), or Koyal fern. It waa alightly 
atunted in growth, being not more than 2 feet in 
height. It la the first I ever have yet seen in the iro- 
ios. Close by the stream was growing a group of 
eautiful ground otohids(o), in form like a Hyacinthus 
candicani. There were clusters of great pink flowers 
with ysilow oentres ; the whole bad a very gorgeous 
effect. Here, also, was a profusiou of Lyobpodium (d).* 
It is of a kiud 1 have not yet seen ; it creeps up aud 
over everything in great bluegreen masses ; ita long 
tendrils creep up the tree truuka like ivy, to a height, 
in Boms cases, of 4 feet. Thera were quantities, also, 
of the ribbon fern, exactly like the havaltia ptnta- 
phylla, (e) which haebeon introduced into Euglisb hot- 
houses from the Malayan Archipelago. What would 
not florists at homo have given for an acre of this 
ground?’ 
“ In the forest there ware two kinds of lilies which 
were common. Une, which grew in swampy ground, 
was in form like an Amaryllis, (f) It was white, with 
a deep crimson centre, and had a delioiona but heavy 
scent. The other waa a lily, (g) which grew every- 
where through the whole length of the forest. It was 
of a brilliant loarlot colour, aud was formed of several 
haodreda of small flowers, forming a tonnd ball like 
a huge Uueldot rose, four inches in diameter. It 
was of such a brillinut scarlet that it looked almost 
metallic, growing in the darkest recesses of the 
forest. One of the oommouest and most striking of 
all the ferns we saw wsa the I’latycerium tUcicome. (h) 
It is an extremely interesting fern, one of a singular 
genua of epiphytal plants, growing on the branches of 
trees. Oar Zanzibaris called it ‘ elephant ear,' from 
il,s curious shape. There was another of the same 
(а) Crinum. ■ 
(б) Osmunda regalit is cosmopolitan, but in tropical 
go ne is high np only. 
c) Mr. Bolfe cannot suggest anything better man 
Lissocbilus. 
(d) Selaginella seandeni, VO donbt. 
(«) " RUibon fern" would suggest Ophioglosaum 
pendulum or f iffariu, but they are not like DavaUta 
pentaphylla. 
(/) Crinum zeylanic urn. 
((g) Brunsvigia toxicaria. _ 
th) PUitycerium aleicornt is not African, bnt P . 
Stmmuria is widely spread. 
family, Pfatyernwm .Stemman'a, which we found grow, 
ing upon rooks in the op, n country. Both these ferns 
grow at altitndes from 1,000 to 5,000 feet. Tree-ferns (t) 
of the ordinary kiud we found growing in all the gullies 
aud steams on the slopes of the mountains above the 
Albert Nyanzn. The altitude was from 5,000 to6,000 
leet above the level of the aca, and I noticed especially 
that the flo a here was remarkably like that in the Csn- 
trsl Frovi, ca of Ceylon, nhich is an altitude of 2,600 
to 4,000 feet above the sea. 
“ By far the most common plant which we saw in the 
jungle was the Amumnm, or wild cardamom. (/) It was 
almost precisely the same in form as the cardamom 
which is cultivated in Oeylon. It grew almost tbroogb- 
ont the whole of Central Africa. It has a large purple 
flower, which grows in clusters on the ground at the 
root of the plant, and from it a bright scarlet fruit 
forms, of a peat shape, and about the size of a small 
fig; It ia divided I uto four quarters, and eontains some 
white, fleshy pulp, very juicy and acid. This pulp ia 
of small black aromatic tasting seeds like those of the 
cultivated cardamom. If ever planters gn into Africa, 
the cardamom will be an iiuportoul product of the soil 
for commerce, for there are vast tracts of forest with 
the climate, soil and chrckerid shade which are neces- 
sary for the cnltivatioD of the onruamoni. Orubilla 
weed should also become a valuable article of commerce; 
it grows in many parts of tho forest. I consider, how- 
ever, that when the groit forest of Central Africa is 
opened up to civilization, by far the most valnable 
article of commerce will be india-rubber, the want of 
which la increasingly felt in the civilized world. Now 
that electricity is so ranch used for various pnrpoios, 
the demand lor india-rubber grows larger and larger: 
the snpply which is shut np in the African forest is 
practically unlimited. There are variona trees of the 
flg tribe which yield this product, but by far the great- 
est! amount is contained in the india-rubber vines (f;) 
wbeb abound in the forest and hang from almost every 
tree. In cutting onr way through the forest in some 
places, we got coveted with tho milky glutinuons 
sap, which dropped upon us from the vines we cut 
through. 
"The natives know its value, and nse it largely for 
smearing the inside of their bnekets in order to make 
them nold water. They nse it largely also for covering 
the euds of their drumsticks. The india-rubber ob- 
tained is of a cleat, yellowish ooloor, like glue, and ia 
of the most elastic description. 
" In the forest region I saw no water lilies, bat in 
Emin Fnaha’s Province in the Bari country, 1 saw two 
kinds, (f) 'They were both about the size of an ordi- 
nary white water-lily, and the leaves and flowers floated 
on the surface of tho water, but tho stalks and forma- 
tion of the leaves and flowors was fintr and more slander. 
One was of a pink coral-like colour, not white like the 
Zanzibar lily, aud the other of a pale bluish lavender. 
They were growing iu small olear pools only a few miles 
apart in the valley of the Nile, at an altitude of mbont 
3,000 feet above the sea. 
“ One of the meet interesting botanioal iliscoveries I 
made iu the forest was the discovery of a wild orange 
tree. During our march through the forest I had con- 
tiunally come upon trees varying from 8 to 15 feot high. 
They had double leaves of a peculiar shape, which bad 
a delioions smell like orange leaves ; the branches were 
covered wi.h long sharp thorns, and I at once ptonoun- 
oed them to be orange trees. My fellow officers smiled 
inotedulonsly, and exclaimed : * Urange-trees (m) in the 
middle of the forest I’ Bnt I hold to my opinion, aud 
(t) No doubt Cgathea Thomsoni, Baker, which is very 
neat C Dregei of the Cape. 
(y) Tnere area large number of Amomums in West 
Tropical Atrica. The ftnits are 3- not 4-celled. See >4 
Baniellii, &o., in Oliver and Uaubury’s paper in Journ* 
Linn. Boo., vii. 109. 
(k) Landolphia. 
({) Nymphaa stellata and N. Lotus are both plentiful 
in Upper Nile-land. 
(vt) This reads like a tree Citrus, and if so is an 
interesting discovery, as no species ia hitherto knawa 
here. 
