VEaETATION OF TEOPICAL WESTERN AFRICA. 19 



value beyond its edible seeds ; it is however a fine ornamental tree 

 for planting in any of our tropical colonies. Bassia Farkii has 

 puzzled me mucli : first I could not induce them to vegetate for 

 months ; now they continue dying oif ; but I trust some will reach 

 home alive. The young plants of the " Opakala " will prove valu- 

 able, both as an economical plant, and as a fine tree. I have 

 enclosed some of its large ligneous pods and edible seeds in one of 

 the boxes. It grows in the lower Niger, Fernando Po, and Prince's 

 Island ; the negroes collect the seeds, boil them slightly, slice and 

 dry them for future use. Some plants of the yellow dye (of 

 Soudan) in the case are very small ; but it has large roots, and a 

 tendency to be herbaceous, so perhaps will not be dead, if invi- 

 sible, when the case is opened. 



We visited Prince's Island to purchase stock, and recruit the 

 health of our sick people by a sea breeze. This island, unlike 

 Fernando Po, has no very elevated land ; it presents from the sea 

 a number of peaks, an immense block of rocks (some conical, 

 others flat-topped), with butting cliffs or perpendicular walls of 

 sheer precipices more than 1000 feet high, these bare of any 

 vegetation, white and dazzling in the tropical sun. We steamed 

 into West Bay amidst torrents of rain, which, clearing up, showed 

 a number of pretty cataracts descending in streams down the pre- 

 cipitous sides of the little mountains, in thin silver lines — when 

 shooting the rock, spreading out as they came down in a horse- 

 tail manner, till, falling far down, they were lost in a cloud of 

 mist and vapour below. The rocks are mostly soft, having been 

 changed by igneous action. The soil is rich, composed principally 

 of decomposed trap ; beds of conglomerate and pebbles lie about 

 the base of the hills. 



This island is celebrated for producing good coffee. Chocolate 

 is also much grown, or rather has been extensively planted ; nume- 

 rous ravines, dark and gloomy, abounding in moisture, are well 

 adapted for its cultivation. Traces of sugar plantations exist ; but 

 its culture seems now abandoned. Indeed everything evinces decay, 

 and no system of management ; coffee trees appear here and there, 

 as if dropped from the clouds, struggling for life among trees and 

 shrubs by which they are surrounded. Cacaos, more vigorous in 

 growth, maintain their existence better, and soon take entirely 

 for themselves the moist places in which they have been planted ; 

 the fruit of this was ripe at the time, and seemed the favourite 

 food of monkeys, which must be very destructive to the crop. 

 Gringer, arrowroot, yams, and all the fruits of the coast are grown 



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