I 



IN. 



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LIKRAKY 

 PEW YORK. 

 BOTANICAL 

 THE QAltOBN 



JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



PLANTS FROM THE EKET DISTRICT, S. NIGERIA 



COLLECTED BY Mr. AND MrS. P. AmAURY TaLBOT. 



(Plate 529.) 



Mr. and Mrs. P. Amaury Talbot have been continuing tlieir 

 work of botanical exploration in Southern Nigeria. For the last 

 twelve months Mr. Talbot has been stationed in the Eket District, 

 a broad strip of land bordering the Gulf of Guinea, stretching 

 westward from Calabar and the Cross River. Mr. Talbot de- 

 scribes the land bordering the shore of the Gulf as one vast 

 littoral, crossed and recrossed by a network of waterways, so that 

 it is possible to pass by canoe from French Dahomey on the one 

 side to the German Cameroons on the other without once sighting 

 the sea. The country is drained by the inner stretches of the 

 Cross River and the Kwa Ibo. It consists of mangrove marsh 

 lining the banks of creek and stream, and of fertile palm swamp 

 with coco-nut, piassava, and oil-palms, while toward the sea- 

 shore dwarf dates fringe the low-lying lands. 



Unfortunately, owing to the unsettled nature of the country, 

 botanical exploration has been carried on with some difficulty, but 

 notwithstanding this, a large collection has been sent to the 

 National Herbarium, where it is in course of determination. Many 

 cvj specimens are identical with those previously sent by the Talbots 

 from the high-lying Oban District, but the collection contains a 

 good proportion of West African species not yet recorded from 

 Nigeria, though generally previously known from the Cameroons. 

 An interesting feature is the presence of species hitherto known 

 only from material collected by Gustav Mann at Calabar. There 

 are also a good number of novelties, and it is proposed to publish 

 descriptions of these, and notes on other species of interest, in the 

 pages of this Journal. The present instalment includes a new 

 genus of Leguminosae and a number of new species, especially of 

 the families Rubiaceae and Apocynaceae. Mrs. Talbot has paid 

 special attention to the Napoleonas, and the collection will supply 

 a substantial addition to the number of species hitherto known 

 from West Tropical Africa. The notes as to habit, &g., have been 

 kindly supplied by Mrs. Talbot. A TJ "R 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 52. [January, 1914.] b 



