536 Engler . — Plants of the Northern Temperate Zone in their 
After all, the highland flora of Tropical Africa is not very rich in 
peculiar components derived fromTypes of the lower regions. This, 
again, is the cause of the enormous extension of a few species and the 
amount of yet tenantless ground in the upper regions. Such ground has 
been always at the disposal of any seed brought from anywhere by wind 
or birds as long as it kept its power of germination. Further, I may 
be allowed to refer to some species of the forest-region of Tropical 
Africa which, being likewise nearly allied to such of the temperate zone, 
have undoubtedly not reached Tropical Africa by man’s interven- 
tion. 
Such a European type widely distributed in the forests of Africa 
is Sanicula europaea. When observing it in Usambara and on Kilimanjaro, 
I tried to And out if there were any differences between the African plants 
and the European ones. The specimens not uncommonly attain a height 
of about 60 cm. ; they frequently possess a leafy stem, they have some- 
times lateral branches, and the leaves have always segments much narrowed 
from the base towards the apex ; the flowers are mostly purplish-brown, 
the lateral branches of the inflorescence often much elongated. The same 
characters are to be found in Abyssinia, on Ruwenzori, Cameroon Peak, 
in the mountains of Nyassaland, Natal, and Cape Colony, at the Comoro 
Islands and in Madagascar. But the purplish colour of the petals is not 
constant. And some specimens collected by Medley Wood in Natal at 
about 1,000 m. a. s. 1 . show only one leaf on the simple stem. On the 
other hand, even in Germany (near Eisleben, Lagow, Rastatt — Herb. 
Berlin), there are vigorous specimens with several cauline leaves and 
the same cutting of the leaves which is the general rule in the African 
specimens. Some specimens from Daghestan and the mountains of Pontus 
approach even more the African plant, and, at the same time, the S. elata, 
Hamilt., of India. This is simply brought under S. europaea by C. B. Clarke 
(in Hooker, Flora of Brit. India, ii, 670), while Hooker fil. called it 
S', europaea , var. elata on the labels of his Himalayan collections. I incline 
to adopt Hooker’s terminology for the African plant also. This was 
named var. capensis by Chamisso and Schlechtendal in Linnaea L (1826) 
352. But the name of Sanicula elata , Hamilt., being published as early 
as 1825, is to be recommended, so much the more as it is indicative of 
the habit and, at the same time, does not favour any of the many countries 
where the variety occurs. In Asia this variety is to be found in the 
mountains of Pontus and Daghestan, Himalaya, British India, and Ceylon, 
in Java and Sumatra (S. javanica , Bl., S'. Montana , Reinw.), in Central 
China and Japan; it seems to be very difficult to classify any sub- 
varieties. 
All the differences of these Saniculae from the European form seem 
obviously to be called forth by the longer vegetation-period as afforded 
