163 
always to be found in damp places along the banks of streams and 
in the grass fields which are under water during the rainy season ” 
(Sangster). In Dahomey the plants do not grow on the shallow 
granitic and gneissic soils in the north, but the rich alluvial soil near 
the coast is covered with an almost continuous belt of Palms 
(Adam), ; 
The following account of the Oil Palm in Southern Nigeria is 
taken from Mr. Thompson’s “ Notes” :— 
“The typical species of the Oil Palm appears to be confined, 
within the limits of Southern Nigeria, to the moist belts of country. 
It is most plentiful in the native farms and evergreen forests of the 
Niger Delta, and some of the littoral districts of the Eastern Pro- 
vince, where a heavy annual rainfall is experienced. 
“In the hinterland, where the rainfall is deficient, it follows the 
evergreen belts of forest skirting the larger streams. d 
chmate and poor soils do not suit the plant; it is conspicuously 
absent from the impoverished, grass-covered soils of the hinterland, 
on which the Fan Palm, Borassus flabellifer, and the wild Date Palm, 
Phoenix reclinata, which are so frequently met with, are subject to 
inundations during the rainy season, and forest fires during the dry 
period of the year. 
“ The Oil Palm flourishes best on the rich alluvial humus-covered 
soils of the forest region. It will also grow on rocky soils, provided 
there is a sufficient rainfall to bring about a weathering and dis- 
consequence, a few very tall, thin, lanky individuals of the typical 
Oil Palm make their appearance, in company with well-grown 
examples of the variety of Oil Palm known to the Yorubas as the 
King Palm, or Ope-Ifa. In this, the habitat par excellence of the 
latter, the growth of the typical species is poor in the extreme, and 
it is only well back from the shores, where vegetation has had time 
enough thoroughly to clothe the old sand dunes, enrich the soil, 
and increase the amount of moisture retained by it, that the type 
species is at its best. : : 
“The rainfall of the localities referred to is practically the same 
along the shores of the lagoons as it is three or four miles farther 
back, where the ordinary variety of the Oil Palm grows so 
luxuriantly. The real factors that here determine the vigorous 
growth of the Oil Palm are the increased richness of the soil, due 
to the presence of decaying organic substances derived from the 
Vegetation growing on it, and the simultaneous increase in the 
amount of water held in suspension by the soil. 
12903 A2 
