150 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



at Entebbe also has a representative collection of woody plants. In 

 Kenya there is an excellent arboretum at Nairobi under the con- 

 servator of forests and the grounds around the Scott Laboratories 

 are used as an acclimatization station. There is also a herbarium 

 attached to the agricultural department, and a good herbarium 

 at the Coryndon Memorial Museum in Nairobi. In Nyasaland the 

 agricultural station at Zomba is used as an acclimatization station 

 and the forest department has its own arboretum. 



In West Africa, Nigeria has the Moor Plantations, the head- 

 quarters of the agricultural department, which are used for accli- 

 matization purposes as well as for agriculture. Several of the other 

 agricultural stations have developed from botanical gardens which 

 were originally in the charge of gardeners sent out from Kew, and 

 some are still used for the acclimatization of plants. There is, in 

 the Cameroons, the Victoria Botanic Garden established under 

 the German administration. This was far the finest garden in 

 West Africa, but much of it has now been abandoned, and for the 

 remainder the upkeep has been reduced to a bare maintenance 

 level. There is a herbarium at Victoria, and another, which is of 

 larger size and better kept up, has been established by the forest 

 department at Ibadan. In the Gold Coast the Aburi Garden, where 

 many of the technical officers of the agricultural department have 

 their headquarters, was established about 1890, and is used for 

 acclimatization purposes and for horticulture. An herbarium of 

 forest plants is maintained at Kumasi, and a larger herbarium, 

 containing over 10,000 named sheets, has been built up at the bio- 

 logical laboratories of Achimota College. In Sierra Leone the head- 

 quarters of the agricultural department is at Njala, where there is 

 an acclimatization station and an herbarium. 



With regard to the future of botanical research in British terri- 

 tories, it is clear in the first place that the breeding of crop plants 

 and the study of pathological problems will always be required. 

 Concerning natural vegetation, it can be claimed that, though far 

 from being perfectly known, most of the common plants excepting 

 the lower orders such as fungi and mosses, are now sufficiently 

 listed and described to provide a working basis for other subjects. 

 Accordingly studies in plant physiology and ecology are becoming 

 really profitable. Ecological studies, to be comprehensive and use- 



