226 
and several cocoa farms in the neighbourhood. We then went 
by train to Ibadan, the headquarters of the Agricultural - 
Department, Southern Provinces, Nigeria, where I stayed some 
ten days before proceeding to Northern Nigeria and the Bauchi 
Plateau. 
Tue Victoria GARDENS. 
The site chosen for the Botanic Gardens could hardly have 
been more appropriate both as regards natural beauty and with 
reference to soil conditions and the general character of the 
ground, which includes both flat land by the river side and a 
good deal of hilly ground. 
The Garden area is situated between the township of Victoria. 
and the village of Bota, lying about a mile and a half apart on 
the shore of Ambas bay. 
To the north rises the magnificent Cameroon mountain from 
whose slopes comes the Limbe river which traverses the Garden, 
tumbling over boulders like some mountain stream in N. Wales, 
and flows into the bay at the Victoria or southern end of the 
Garden. (Plate I., fig. 2). 
Even had the site not been transformed into a Garden, its 
natural beauty would have been remarkable, bounded as it is 
by the sea on the western side, rising to a considerable elevation 
towards the north with a precipitous cliff on the seaward side 
and traversed by the broad stream falling in rapids and cascades 
towards the sea. Looking up the valley of the Limbe, the mass 
of the Cameroon mountain forms an imposing background, the 
view being flanked by low hills covered with Palms and Tropical 
vegetation. 
As soon as I had set foot in the Gardens, it would, I felt, 
be a lasting discredit—as His Excellency so forcibly says in his 
address to the Nigerian Council*—if the Nigerian Government. 
“were to neglect to repair the damage which the war has 
already unhappily inflicted upon these lovely and valuable 
Gardens.” 
The damage caused by the years of comparative neglect. 
since the Gardens came under British control is fortunately net 
so serious as might be expected, and I was glad to be able to 
report that no large expenditure either of time or money would 
be needed to restore them to a state of proper order and 
efficiency. 
The area of the Gardens is about 200 acres, but should an 
outlying area to the East, which has been cut off from the latest 
map as here reproduced—the exact boundary of which is not 
precisely defined, be included in the restored garden, its area 
would probably be a good deal larger. 
The Botanic Garden proper, which lies between the river and 
the sea, has been laid out with considerable skill and in its 
landscape effect leaves little to be desired. Owing to the neglect. 
* Nigerian Council, address by the Governor, pp. 185, 186. 
