1^8 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



Pretoria, and also by Prof, van der Bijl of Stellenbosch. In tropical 

 Africa a number of collections especially of the larger fungi, have 

 been named and lists published, notably by G. Massee and Miss 

 E. M. Wakefield of Kew and by Mr. J. Ramsbottom and Miss 

 Lorrain Smith of the British Museum. C. G. Hansford has recently 

 published the first of a series of papers on the fungus flora of 

 Uganda. The parasitic fungi which are important in connection 

 with diseases have naturally also been dealt with (see under 

 plant diseases, p. 175). A notable venture is the forthcoming 

 publication for the Belgian Congo of an illustrated work on the 

 larger fungi, edited by M. Beeli. This will be one of the first of its 

 kind for any country in the tropics. As regards freshwater algae, 

 several extensive lists have been published by the late G. S. West 

 and also by F. E. Fritsch and Miss M. F. Rich on algae occurring 

 in the African lakes, but, as every algologist knows, such work can 

 be extended almost indefinitely. A list of the marine algae of South 

 Africa by Mrs. A. Gepp was published in 1893; a more recent 

 list is that by Dr. E. M. Delf and Mrs. Levyns (1921). For the 

 Pteridophyta there is the volume by T. R. Sim entitled The Ferns 

 of South Africa (191 5), now somewhat out of date. For the tropical 

 species there is no general work. 



PLANT ECOLOGY 



The study of plant ecology, particularly in relation to floristic 

 change, deserves to be considered in some detail, since it is directly 

 relevant to many of the problems in the spheres of agriculture and 

 forestry, which confront Africa to-day. Professor Tansley of 

 Oxford University has kindly prepared a list, with brief abstracts, 

 of the more important papers on the subject. The following para- 

 graphs are based on this list, with additions from other experts 

 mentioned in the preface. This study is still at a very early stage 

 of development even in Europe, where intensive work on plant 

 ecology has been carried out during the past twenty years; in 

 Africa a great deal of research is required before the relation of 

 flora to environment can be known even in outline. 



Perhaps the most important foundation stone of our knowledge 

 of African vegetation is the volume by the German scientists, 

 Engler and Drude (1908-10) on the whole continent, with special 



