240 
His Excellency the Governor having kindly granted me per- 
mission to extend my tour to visit the Plateau, I spent some 
interesting days around Jos in the company of the Director of 
griculture, N. Provinces, and was very gratified to find several 
people who were willing to assist us in sending home specimens. 
The journey from Zaria to Jos is about 132 miles and the 
train climbs slowly the 2000 ft., the greater part of the ascent 
being towards the end of the journey. The time taken was 
about eleven hours, and, as there is a passenger train only once 
a week, the journey both up and down was made in one of the 
large covered luggage vans attached to the daily goods train 
leaving Zaria at 7.15 a.m. 
The scenery throughout the Zaria province is somewhat 
monotonous? dry savannah or sparse park-like vegetation, 
the dominant plant being the “‘ Doka”’ (Isoberlinia doka), which, 
despite the dryness, was coming into fresh leaf everywhere. 
Other conspicuous trees were Parkia filicoides and Shea butter, 
while the shrubs were mainly Anona senegalensis, Combretums 
and Acacias. (Plate III., fig. 6.) 
The ground in many places was studded with the large 
yellow flowers of Cochlospermum tinctoriwm, Rich. (Bixaceae), 
and the conical red earth ant heaps were a conspicuous feature 
Around the villages large areas are devoted to cultivation 
and here the Parkia trees are es — by the natives, 
as their leaves are used as green ma 
The effects of the burning of ry bush and old grass, to en- 
courage young growth, were much in evidence, and it was 
remarkable to notice how little the “ Doka ’? and other bushes and 
trees were injured by the fierce heat of these annual bush fires. 
On the plateau the aridity of the country, at the end of the 
dry season of some seven months, was very striking, so that the 
number of plants that were in flower or were bursting into fresh 
green leaf was all the more remarkable. The problem of the 
water supply is worthy of investigation as the ground appeared 
to be quite dry though the water table must, it would seem, be 
fairly near the surface. The bare granitic hills which crop. out 
around Jos and Naraguta add to the general dry and barren 
effect of the landscape. 
These dry granitic hills are the home of many xerophytic 
plants of interest, but unfortunately the Cactoid Euphorbias 
(Plate ITI., fig. 5), and Asclepiads with their stout grey stems were 
not in flower. Here also was growing a white-flowered leafless 
Senecio with the habit of a xerophytic Euphorbia, which has 
proved to be a new species and has been named S. Cliffordianus, 
in honour of His Excellency the Governor. 
Other plants found among the dry rocks were a Sansevieria, an 
Aloe in seed, living specimens of both of which were brought 
home to Kew, and Strophanthus sarmentosus. 
The Pagan villages, consisting of clusters of small round mud 
houses, are to be found among the rocky hills, and are surrounded, 
