PREFACE 
THE following account of the plants of the Oban District of 
South Nigeria has been drawn up from the collections made by 
Mr. and Mrs. P. Amaury Talbot in the years 1909 to 1912, 
during Mr. Talbot/s period of Government service in the District, 
„and presented by them to the Museum. Mrs. Talbot also made 
a very large and beautiful series of drawings of the plants, 
reproductions of which she proposes to publish in a separate book. 
The plants have been determined and the novelties described 
by members of the Department of Botany, with the assistance 
of Mr. 8. Moore in various orders, Mr. H. N. Ridley who has 
worked out the Zingiberacee and Marantacex, and Miss A. 
Lorrain Smith who has determined the Lichens. For descrip- 
tions of a few new species I am indebted to Mr. Sprague and 
Mr. Hutchinson of the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 
The authorship of each portion of the work is indicated exactly 
in the text. 
Mr. Talbot has supplied a short account of the district and of 
the general character of its vegetation; and notes on many of 
the plants by Mr. and Mrs. Talbot are incorporated with the 
descriptive matter. : 
A. B. RENDLE. 
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY, 
April, 1913. 
