Beautiful flowers are not conspicuous in the flora of Madagascar, though it contains several magnificent flowering plants. A shrub with the dreadful name _Harpagophytum Grandidieri_ has bunches of gorgeous red flowers; _Tristellateia madagascariensis_ is a climbing plant with spikes of rich yellow flowers; while _Poinciana regia_, a tall tree, _Rhodolaena altivola_ and _Astrapoea Wallichii_, shrubs, are among the most magnificent flowering plants in the world. _Disa Buchenaviana_, _Commelina madagascarica_, and _Tachiadenus platypterus_ are fine blue-flowered plants, while the superb orchid _Angraecum sesquipedale_, _Vinca rosea_, _Euphorbia splendens_, and _Stephanotis floribunda_, have been long cultivated in our hot-houses. There are also many handsome Combretaceae, Rubiaceae, and Leguminosae; but, as in most tropical regions, this wealth of floral beauty has to be searched for, and produces little effect in the landscape. The affinities of the Madagascar flora are to a great extent in accordance with those of the fauna. The tropical portion of the flora agrees closely with that of tropical Africa, while the plants of the highlands are {441} equally allied to those of the Cape and of the mountains of Central Africa. Some Asiatic types are present which do not occur in Africa; and even the curious American affinities of some of the animals are reproduced in the vegetable kingdom. These last are so interesting that they deserve to be enumerated. An American genus of Euphorbiaceae, Omphalea, has one species in Madagascar, and Pedilanthus, another genus of the same natural order, has a similar distribution. Myrosma, an American genus of Scitamineae has one Madagascar species; while the celebrated "travellers' tree," _Ravenala madagascariensis_, belonging to the order Musaceae, has its nearest ally in a plant inhabiting N. Brazil and Guiana. Echinolaena, a genus of grasses, has the same distribution.[113]