ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
“OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
No. ee (1909. 
VI—THE VARIETIES OF THE OIL PALM IN WEST 
AFRICA. 
(Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) 
Several accounts of the mode of preparation of the Palm oil in 
West Africa have appeared in the pages of the Kew Bulletin. The 
first of these, under the title of the Oil Palm in Labuan (K.B., 1889, 
pp. 262-264), contains an interesting despatch from the Governor 
of the Gold Coast on the Palm oil industry in West Africa, dealing 
with the cultivation of the Palm and the manufacture of the oil. 
In the volume for 1891, pp. 190-192, a further account of the pre- 
paration of the oil on the Gold Coast is given with fuller details of 
the process. The Palm oil industry in Lagos is dealt with in the 
following year (K.B., 1892, pp. 200-208), and illustrations of the 
Palm itself and of the method of preparation of the oil are given. 
There is also a short note on the Oil Palm in Sierra Leone (4.B., 
1893, p. 168). 
In February of last year the attention of Kew was again called 
to the question of the West African Palm oil industry by the Secre- 
tary of State for the Colonies, who sent a copy of a letter from the 
West African Trade Association to the Director, in which the 
possibility of improving the cultivation of the West African Oil 
Palm is suggested. In the course of the letter reference is made to 
“a species of palm which bears soft-shelled kernels.” 
In his reply to the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the 
question of the need of further information on the Palm oil industry, 
the Director of Kew suggested that information should be supplied 
by the local authorities to show :— 
“(a) To what extent the existing supplies of Oil Palm kernels 
are taken advantage of by traders; (6) whether an Oil Palm with 
soft-shelled kernels is known on the West Coast of Africa, and if so, 
in what districts it is to be found; (c) how far increased facilities 
of communication have tended to increase the quantity of palm oil 
d) how far improved methods of 
extracting the oil have tended to improve the general quality of 
the oil produced ; (e) how far the higher quality of one known 
(12371—6a.) Wt, 35—188. 1375. 3/09. D&S, ee 
